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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