Yesterday at Mason Park (Sydney) there was a pale fawn backed Welcome
Swallow with a partially white uppertail. It perched briefly appearing very
eyecatching. At the nearby Waterbird Refuge in Bicentennial Park there was a
white Grey or Chestnut Teal with pale brownish occasional feathers on the
upperwings. It has a pink bill and legs but is structurally identical to the
numerous Grey and Chestnut Teals it is associating with.
It is amazing how many aberrant freak birds you encounter. Other weird birds
I have encountered include a Great Knot with bright red legs and bill base,
a white Great Knot with yellow patches-both in the Brisbane district (with
witnesses!), a Great-winged Petrel with white basal primary coverts in both
the upper and underwings quickly strung into a Kermadec Petrel until
photographs were examined subsequently, a partially white Grey Petrel off
Tassie, a pure white Short-tailed Shearwater off Sydney, leucistic
White-rumped Miner in Esperance.
Then there was the famous tri-hybrid - a Grey Butcherbird-Pied Butcherbird
hybrid which went onto cross with an Australian Magpie producing a strange
intermediate between all three species including producing snippets of song.
This bird lived on Stradbroke Island for several years. Certainly can create
some confusion and interest.
Happy birding
Dion
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
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