While visiting the Nightcap National Park in North-eastern NSW, I sighted a
bird, which with my limited (non-HANZAB) resources I cannot positively
identify. My impression now having arrived home (with the benefit of Pizzey
and Knight) is that I observed a young Australian brush turkey, but I saw no
other birds, nor evidence of their presence to support my supposition. I
hope that someone with local knowledge or knowledge of brush turkeys can
help me.
The bird was small (approximately 20cm high) immature/juvenile fowl-like,
scratching around in rainforest near the car park. The bird had bare skin
around eye, which was orange/red in colour. The bill was short and slightly
hooked. It had three toes pointing forward and a fourth toe pointing
backward.
Other colouring:
back was slaty grey in colour with traces of rufous
belly was lighter and more brown than back with fluffy feathers around tail
head was rufous with a black 'stripe' back to its 'ear'
throat was lighter coloured than rest of head
legs appeared to be dark with a trace of pink
I would appreciate any help to identify the blighter.
Cheers and a happy new year
Alastair Smith
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
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