About:
recently fledged LGBs that had very plain underparts, so much so that you would have taken them for young reed-warblers if they were not being tended by adult grassbirds,
well maybe but the
Little Grassbird is also strongly marked above, whereas Reed-Warblers are plain all over.
About the
Birds of the Western Palearctic, could it be that many of their birds are migrants
and young birds migrate soon and do not stay a long time as independent birds before they leave, so they might be seen away from their parents less than those here, so a lesser need to show them in books. Or are our books just better?
Philip
From: Geoffrey Dabb [
Sent: Wednesday, 27 December, 2017 11:18 AM To: Subject: FW: [canberrabirds] ID Please
Quite interesting. I mentioned to Julie that I had a pic from many years ago of recently fledged LGBs that had very plain underparts, so much so that you
would have taken them for young reed-warblers if they were not being tended by adult grassbirds. The illustrations in both HANZAB and the Aust Bird Guide show juvenile grassbirds with plain breasts. Might I venture as a generalisation that many Australian
passerine species have juveniles with strong streaking, especially the underparts, and that this contrasts with the general pattern for the Sylvioid Oscines, in which falls the LGB? Far too broad a proposition, I suppose, as you would need to go family by
family. If the general proposition is near the mark, that might be why Birds of the Western Palearctic, unlike HANZAB, includes few juvenile illustrations – ‘first winter’ birds where shown are little different from adults. As to ‘our birds’, I am
thinking particularly of our juvenile robins, whistlers and woodswallows. Not directly in point, but at Campbell Park the other morning I was struck by the contrast in streaking between a strongly marked juv Grey Shrike-thrush and a lightly marked adult female
Rufous Whistler.
From: Julie Clark [
Sent: Monday, 25 December 2017 9:30 PM
To: COG Chatline Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] ID Please
I hope everyone has had a terrific Christmas Day! (I am currently feeling as one does when one has over-indulged in good food and alcohol ...)
For those interested in the ID of my bird .....
I had 7 replies. 6 suggested Little Grassbird ( 3 suggesting a younger bird) and 1 Reed-warbler. Most of the replies backed up their ID with informative comments which I always really
appreciate.
On the strength of that I'm happy to call it a Little Grassbird (immature).
