I saw a group of these birds in the Alice Springs area in Central Australia and I can't figure out what kind of bird it is. Probably a honeyeater, but which one?
Thank you
| Term and Conditions | Privacy Statement | Web Support by Gaia Resources Hosted by Serversaurus |  |
Hello and welcome to the forum. That is a Grey-Crowned Babbler. They are often in groups, making "babbling" noises.
Did you see any other birds there?
Regards,
Andy.
Hi Andy,
thank you very much for identifying, it really is a Grey-crowned Babbler.
Since you're asking, yes in fact I did see a few other birds in the same area over the last days and I haven't yet identified all of them.
The first one looks like a Satin Flycatcher, but not exactly.
The third one may be a kite, but I'm not sure.
The last one definitely is a female Pied Butcherbird.
im pretty sure the first one is a willy wag tail
Thanks sparrow, you are right. I compared my photos to the ones on Wikipedia and the white eyebrows match.
The second one is a White-necked Heron.
The third one is a Black Kite.
My guess on the last one would be an immature pied butcherbird.
The second one looks like a juvenile shite necked heron due to the streaks on the neck, the third one looks like a whistling kite.
I am with Amateur on the last one.
Cheers, Owen.
It's hard to tell which type of kite the third one is as the Whistling Kite and Black Kite don't look much different it seems. I've got plenty more photos from different angles and after comparing to other photos on the web I thought it looked more similar to the Black Kite, but I'm not an expert. Here's another photo of the same:
Regarding the Butcherbird, the photo of a female on Wikipedia looks very similar to mine, however the one of a juvenile also comes close. Difficult.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pied_Butcherbird
I think it is a shistling kite because black kites are darker and have a smaller, forked tail. In the other shot the beak has a long hook on the end and is much larger.
Cheers, Owen.
Makes sense, thank you. My assumption was mostly based on many photos like the one below, where the wings have a spotted look that can't be seen on mine.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/centralaustralia/365536691/in/set-72157594484501959
The young ones have spots on their wings while the adults don't.
Cheers, Owen.
Great, thanks for clarifying.
Lovely shots Midnight Cowboy. I hope you'll become a regular visitor to the forum.
Were you in central Aus on holiday?
Yes and no. I moved to Australia a few years ago, but at the moment I'm just travelling around and moving North. There's still a lot of the country that I haven't seen.
I'm sure I'll visit the forum more often now. For me as a European it's incredibly fascinating to have so much wildlife and colourful birds around, so last year I bought a new camera and a 500mm lens that is really good for photographing birds. But often I struggle with identifying them and the forum here seems like a really good place to get help.
I always post my favourite photos to my Flickr account as I travel around:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthiassiegel/
I looked through your photos on flickr and they were very interesting and all of the bird ones were great shots. Looks like you had a wonderful time on holiday.
Cheers, Owen.
Hi Matthias Siegel,with a name like yours, you would have to be German? Am I right? Ich hoffe Du hast viel Spass in unserem schoenen Land !!
M-L
Your kite's a Whistling Kite!
@Araminta: You are right! Vielen Dank!
Thank you all for your help. I just returned from a trip to Kakadu, Nitmiluk and Litchfield National Parks and got plenty of new photos which I will post to my Flickr account soon. Here is one of my favourites, I think it's a Rainbow Bee-eater:
[
Superb Midnight...and yes it certainly is one...great shot! are you going to put it in the best photos section? Everyone loves these birds and I love your composition :')
Sunshine Coast Queensland