We saw two females of this seldom seen bird at Dryandra near Naroggin,
Western Australia on Feb 14, just opposite the trail to the Ochre
Walk. The disyllabic "hur hee" rather nasal call attracted my
attention, it had a shrike-tit type quality but was bit different to
the usual calls of Eastern Shrike-tit. They were calling a lot, and
were very responsive to my whistle.
My feeble imitation brought them in, and one landed not 4m away from
us almost on the ground, working at some dead sticks that had some
moss attached, and was quite indifferent to our presence and the
frantic picture snapping of my companion- my camera was of course
safely in the truck! He got some terrific shots too.
One bird seemed slightly better marked than the other, with a better
defined greenish throat patch, and I suspect there may have been at
third bird around, but was not able to confirm this.
I am not overly familiar with Western Shrike-tit and wonder if anyone
out there knows how or indeed if the vocalizations differ from those
of the Eastern taxon, (split by some as a species along with the very
distinct and even less known Northern Shrike-tit).
Phil Gregory
www. cassowary-house.com.au
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www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
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