canberrabirds

Bird ID from description

To: 'CanberraBirds email list' <>
Subject: Bird ID from description
From: Philip Veerman <>
Date: Tue, 7 Mar 2023 04:52:28 +0000
Can't really be sure at all from this, but it is likely to be a pigeon. My 
suggestion is the much more likely Spotted Turtle-Dove (even juveniles that 
don't have the black patch with white spots on the neck), which matches those 
features. Have you checked that one in a book and considered that one? Brown 
Cuckoo-Dove does not have that white in the tail and I don't know that they 
come to the ground.

Philip

-----Original Message-----
From: Canberrabirds  
On Behalf Of 
Sent: Tuesday, 7 March, 2023 3:04 PM
To: CanberraBirds email list
Cc: 
Subject: Bird ID from description

Hello All

Sylvia has sent several emails to the COG office with descriptions of 
bird visitors to her Charnwood garden. If you can help her with an ID 
please contact her.

Thanks

Margaret Robertson


"I've seen groups of a brown bird recently using my bird bath (upper 
Charnwood). They appear to be the brown cuckoo-dove. Has anyone else 
noticed them in this region? But, consulting Simpson, they don't mention 
these birds as having white parts under the wings and tail when they are 
spread, which the ones I see have.

The birds I have, coming in groups of 3-4, are nothing like Common Mynas 
which have head markings and white on belly. They are larger and look 
like doves, with small head, slim neck, quite a large body and longish 
tail. When wings and tail are not spread they are more or less an even 
brown all over. I haven’t seen them before and realise they have come 
farther west than usual. I’ve seen them in the summer and this month. 
One time they lay on their fronts on the ground after bathing, beaks to 
one side, and spread their wings and tails so you could see the white, 
which you only see as a flash in flight. I don’t have a camera but might 
try to do something, hoping they won’t leave. It is like a forest here 
with lots of trees and shrubs in gardens and public spaces like green 
belts (special design of Charnwood).

I thought your group would like to know about this. I cannot think what 
other bird they would be and they might have come to Canberra for the 
first time.

When the birds were lying on the ground it was on gravel and I noticed 
one was pecking at it. Then I read they sometimes eat gravel. I have a 
large mulberry tree and plum tree with fruit nearby."
-- 

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