Hi all,
Does anyone know of any morphological differences between mainland Pied
Currawongs and the Lord Howe Island (LHI) subspecies?
When I was on LHI I saw a recently fledged juvenile and observed that it had
a bright yellow beak, although the middle section of the bill was greyer
(i.e. middle of both upper and lower mandibles) in addition to a fleshy
yellow commisural point (what we in Australia call the gape). However, when
I have seen juvenile mainland Pied Currawongs they have had black beaks,
with a yellow commisural point and bright yellow gape (i.e. inside of the
mouth). I didn't see the LHI juvenile gaping so could not see if it had
yellow inside the mouth. Has anyone else seen young Pied Currawongs,
especially on Lord Howe, and care to comment?
Other possible differences between adults that I noticed, but in the absence
of direct comparison can not be confident of, included perhaps a smaller
white patch in the wing, which formed a clear semi-circlre of white in the
closed wing, and a thinner white band at the base of the tail.
Of course, the Lord Howe birds sound very different from any of the mainland
birds I have heard (Vic, NSW, QLD).
I welcome any comments.
Cheers, Dean
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