Fwd: Spangled Drongo at 85 Wanna Wanna Rd

[Martin Butterfield <>]

Martin is now back from Mallacoota and confirms this as the first record for Carwoola.  Graeme's photo was too big (by an order of magnitude) for the chatline but I have cropped the attached, which shows the silhouette and particularly the forked tail, from a copy he sent me.

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Martin Butterfield

http://franmart.blogspot.com.au/

On 8 February 2018 at 07:00, Graeme Clifton <> wrote:

I'm resending this email without the photo as it has come to my attention that the 1st attempt was unsuccessful.

Graeme Clifton

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Graeme Clifton <>
Date: Wednesday, February 7, 2018
Subject: Spangled Drongo at 85 Wanna Wanna Rd
To: COG List <m("canberrabirds.org.au","canberrabirds");" target="_blank">org.au>


 Hi All,

Between 8pm and 8.35pm tonight, three of us observed  a single bird in and around the house yard. No doubt about the identification and we have heaps of silhouette photos. We observed the bird with binoculars and we had views as close as 5m.

The bird was hawking for insects from exposed perches and a power line and displayed lots of swooping.  it only called occasionally with a two note call something like "Aw aw".

The very long deeply forked tail was clear to see even though the It was twilight.  Colour was more difficult but it was obvious that it was black and one of us noted a shiny green tinge to the plumage.

One of us observed that the eye was dark not red so it was an immature or juvenile bird.  The bill was pointed and robust like a currawong and the shoulders were very prominent.

On first sight, I thought Olive Backed Oriole but then it flew and I knew it was a Drongo.  I have seen this sp in QLD.

This sp is a rare vagrant in the ACT.  So it is fair to assume it has the same status at Carwoola.

Martin Butterfield is in Mallacoota at present so is missing the action.

Regards

Graeme Clifton