An odd sighting here- we found a party of 3 Chestnut-breasted
Whiteface at the usual spot near Mt Lyndhurst Station on Sept 16, by
the old copper mine. Two had dull chestnut on the chest, but a well
marked third bird had a broad splotchy pale chestnut breast bordered
by a narrow dark band below. It also had chestnut blotches on the
flanks, more like Banded Whiteface. The crown and nape were very grey,
pale eye etc. Do Banded and Chestnut-breasted hybridize I wonder? The
former is certainly known from Montecollina Bore not too far north,
and this year with greenery everywhere maybe they come into contact
here, with mixed flocks n known from near the NT border. I wish I'd
got a photo, this was one very strange individual. I will also check
the calls but thye seemed consistent with the prolonged trills of
Chestnut-breasted Whiteface.
Great looks at Cinnamon Quail-thrush, Thick-billed Grasswren,
Chirruping Wedgebilll and Rufous Fieldwren here also, good to see the
usual moonscape now blooming. Lyndhurst Airstrip was covered in
vegetation and we saw little here, though curiously the only Pied and
White-faced Honeyeaters of the trip flew by! Honeyeater numbers were
amazingly low throughout the mulga and mallee country, I guess they
must al be widely dispersed and breeding like crazy.
Phil Gregory
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