I don't think it can any other bird other than a Eastern Spinebill right
size, long bill curved behaving like a Honeyeater right colour on belly more
than breast
-----Original Message-----
From: meg mcmahon
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2014 10:59 AM
To:
Subject: query
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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