Black Honeyeaters

["Peter Johnson (ITD)" <>]

Tim

 

I managed a distant shot (with Olympus 740 x 10) of the individual sighted first. I enlarged the image on screen last night and while the clarity disappeared there was one unmistakeable fact - the pinkish bill!

 

I later saw a group of three that landed not more than 2 metres from myself and 2 NZ birders, and while I was not drawn to the bill colour, the light colouring on the breast was the first clue and when comparing to Tom Tarrant's photo, in hindsight it was much less marked with only fine streaks - another point of difference with the Black Honeyeater. O'Reilly's law (Murphy evidently was an optimist) of course deemed that by the time I had focussed the digicam, this active little group had gone  - otherwise this discussion would not be ongoing. But then half the fun of birding is being able to share and discuss.

 

Cheers

 

Peter