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Dollarbird in Tasmania

To: Ian May <>
Subject: Dollarbird in Tasmania
From: John Tongue <>
Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2007 07:24:00 +1000
Hi Ian,
We have only been in Tassie four years, but have certainly never seen a Dollarbird, nor heard of their existence in that time. We'd be interested to know what others think on the subject.

John & Shirley Tongue
Hobart

On Monday, March 5, 2007, at 08:16  PM, Ian May wrote:

g'Day All

An immature Dollarbird was observed at Scamander, Tasmania today (5th March 2007) at about 4 pm.

While driving east along Upper Scamander Road with my wife Patricia, our attention was drawn to a medium sized dark coloured bird with distinctive "roller" flight showing white "dollar" under wing flashes, flying adjacent and about 50 metres north east of us. Flying about 10 metres above the ground and following along the undulating forest margin where it meets the road, it settled on a horizontal limb about 25 metres from us illuminated by bright sunlight shining from behind us. By it's characteristic appearance the bird was immediately identified as a Dollarbird. We observed the bird in perfect conditions perched and preening for more than 3 minutes before it flew a short distance to the north settling again into an isolated Blackwood tree growing within a lightly timbered farm paddock near the southern bank of Scamander River. Weather conditions: Mild temperature, approx. 2/8 middle level cloud with low humidity and a light south west breeze. Weather for the past few weeks has been warm to hot and humid with mostly east/ north east and north winds

Location
Upper Scamander Rd at a point 5.9 km. west of Tasman Highway where a power line crosses the road 100 metres west of a red letterbox displaying 100 mm black numbers 599 on white reflective background.. The area is unburned little more than 1 km from where severe bushfires passed in late December 2006

Description
Medium sized bird, strong broad dusky grey bill with a hooked tip, dark grey coloured legs, grey brown head and neck, paler blue upper breast and deeper blue wings with dark grey primaries back and tail. Rolling flight with strong purposeful wing strokes showing conspicuous white under wing patches. No red visible on bill or legs indicating immature bird.

As I have no access to relevant texts at present, would someone confirm status of Dollarbird in Tasmania please?



Regards



Ian May

St Helens, Tasmania

0428337956
(03) 63761966
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