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Superb Fruit-dove at Sheldon Forest Turramurra (Sydney NSW)

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Subject: Superb Fruit-dove at Sheldon Forest Turramurra (Sydney NSW)
From: "Edwin Vella" <>
Date: Sat, 3 Jul 2004 16:44:49 +1000

Today (3/7/04), I was among a small group of fortunate birdos (Phil Hansboro, Andy Burton, Ian McAllan et al) with the legendary Kurtis Lindsay to connect with the Superb Fruit-dove at Sheldon Forest in Turramurra (approx 20-30 km NW of Sydney CBD).

 

The female Fruit-dove was showing well in about the same location Kurtis described about a week ago and was happily indulging on the many privet berries with 2 Brown Cuckoo-doves close by. I managed to take a few pictures amongst the tangles of vines but missed what could have been a good shot when it perched a few metres above us. We did get some good looks of this nice and mainly green bird (with a purple spot on the head) out in the sun and I heard it call at least twice (a short “Oooooooo” which I think this may be the call only given by the female (can anyone confirm this?) rather than the other  whoo..whoop..woop..whoop..woop” call. We were lucky to observe the fruit-dove for over an hour.

 

Though I have seen a few of the Superb Fruit-doves in Cairns before (including the more stunning adult male), this was certainly a nice Sydney tick after several unsuccessful attempts in chasing this bird in Sydney. I wonder how many of these Fruit-doves do get missed in being seen each year in Sydney, especially being a small and fairly quite bird. There are probably more out there than we suspect.

 

Thanks a lot to Kurtis for sharing his wonderful sighting with us.

 

Edwin Vella

 

 

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