Dear Birding Oz.
I am a new subscriber with a query.
My husband and I are buiding a native garden from scratch adjacent to The
Gully, in Katoomba, NSW, which we are hoping will make for an extra bit of
wildlife corridor and a pit-stop for native birds. So it is with the greatest
self- restraint that I refrain from fulminating upon the extraordinary lax
attitude by domestic cat owners in this World Heritage area to ask advice about
a lone bird spotted in my perpetually flowering 2 yr old grevillia week or so
ago.
Without a camera I was able only to make a mental note before going to my bird
books, where was unable to identify it. A neighbour across the road has
confirmed he saw the same bird around the same time in his garden, flitting
about in a native shrub. His description matched mine:
Slender bird about 160 - 170mm, predominantly pale grey (upper feathers) and
pale orange/rufous? (breast), with a longish, possibly curved beak; behaving
just like a honeyeater, occasionally flipping upside down to gather nectar. My
neighbour confirmed the colouring and longish beak, reckoning the beak was
curved, but I can't be certain of that. My first thought was "what an
unusual-coloured honeyeater!".
The colouring was similar to the fan-tailed cuckoo or rufous whistler
(according to Baker & Corringham's Birds of the Blue Mountains) but definitely
had a longer beak than these birds according to my memory of it.
Just wondering if we were seeing things or not!
Many thanks,
Meg
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