Hi Meg,
It sounds like a female Eastern Spinebill to me.
Cheers,
Nigel
On Fri, Jul 11, 2014 at 8:59 AM, meg mcmahon <> wrote:
> 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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