Thanks to Amanda Markham and Jan English I got onto the grey honeyeater at
Olive Pink Botanic Gardens,Alice Springs today, unfortunately only about for a
minute before they disappeared through the trees. They were indeed chasing
each other and I am wondering if this may be a prelude to breeding?
I had been looking at Pizzey and Knight illustration which shows a non-descript
mainly grey bird. When I saw the bird, I knew instantly I had never seen this
bird before(isn't the brain an amazing thing) The first thing that struck me
was how white the belly was, the white eye ring obvious, bill slightly
downcurved and white tips to tail, even obvious in flight. In case yiou are
wondering, yes it was definetly a grey honeyeater!
Readers digest book of australian birds shows grey honeyeater with a lot of
white on it like the bird I saw but is has no white eye ring and the white tip
to tail is not seen in that picture. I haven't seen this bird before but it
reminds me of the problem I had with the slaty backed thornbill, relying on red
eye as the clinching feature. When I gave up on that being necessary, I could
distinguish the difference between the three thornbills of slaty backed, inland
and chestnut rumped easily.
Maybe I need more field guides! I will go back to Olive Pink tomorrow morning
early and see if I could get some extended time with the birds.
Gary
==============================www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
=============================
|
