birding-aus

Help with ID please

To: <>, Birding-Aus <>
Subject: Help with ID please
From: John Graff <>
Date: Fri, 5 Nov 2010 10:04:52 +0800
Hi Annabel,

Based on your description, my suggestion would be a Black Bittern. 'Dull 
charcoal colour' sounds more appropriate for Black than Australasian and they 
tend to be a more riverine species than the Australasian, which prefers swamps

Some links to photos of Black Bittern
http://www.kolkatabirds.com/blackbittern8f.jpg
http://www.aviceda.org/abid/birdimages.php?action=birdimage&bid=636&fid=49&p=2&pagesize=1

Cheers,
John

> From: 
> To: 
> Date: Fri, 5 Nov 2010 12:48:24 +1100
> CC: ; ; 
> ; ; ; 
> 
> Subject: [Birding-Aus] Help with ID please
>
> I was down near the Peel River this morning, about twenty kms upstream from
> Tamworth, when a heavy bodied bird flew low along the river past me.
>
> It had to be either a bittern or an immature night heron.
>
> It disappeared aroung a bend, so I didn't watch it for long, but I did get a
> pretty clear view of it. My impression was of a bird that was all over
> dull charcoal in colour. There were no obvious markings and definitely no
> striations as far as I could see. Size wise, I felt it was a bit bigger
> than a little black cormorant and much thicker in the body.
>
> Any young night herons I've seen have been heavily striated. Are they ever
> without them? My feeling is that I've seen an Australasian Bittern, but
> I'd like to hear your comments.
>
> The river has very heavy vegetation (includingreeds) all along it at the
> vicinity of the sighting. The banks are fairly high in the main, so the
> river is contained - ie although there's continual, thick shelter, there
> aren't any spread out swamps.
>
> Cheers Annabel Ashworth
>
> ===============================
>
> To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
> send the message:
> unsubscribe
> (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
> to: 
>
> http://birding-aus.org
> ===============================
                                          ==============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to: 

http://birding-aus.org
=============================
<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU