Two of these tiny birds flew across the path in front of me Saturday 7th Sept and landed in a casuarina. It was at Cowan at the edge of Muogamurra reserve.
It is such a young bird that when I came up to take a pic it didn't move. I think it was the don't move and it won't see you strategy. Needless to say I didn't stay around long so as not to stress the little bub and didn't see the parent bird. There were pardalotes around and thornbills as well as larger White eared, white cheeked and New Holland honeyeaters.
It was really tiny, smaller than an adult thornbill or pardalote. As you can see the casuarina seed pod behind it, that is about 2.5-3 cm in size. The yellow eye ring and yellow beak made me think it was a noisy myna but it is way too small and the myna chicks I have seen are tiny round balls of fluff. I think it is most likely a pardalote of some kind.
It's hard to ID immature birds but have a go.
Not that I'd have an idea Richard
In comparison to the body, his beak looks large and solid, so do his legs. I have seen a few tiny ones, tit would just have come out of the nest, the tail is almost non existant yet.
Interesting to find out what it is, can't wait to see if someone knows?
M-L
Lovely photo! I'm not very sure but I think it looks like a thornbill
I could be completely wrong but it's worth a try
Reminds me of Silvereye fledgelings I photographed a couple of years back....
Edit; delete reference to FT Cuckoo, the photo is from the USA, so, i am obviously way off, still think it could be a starling though. Fantailed cuckoo, maybe, the eye ring is different, here 1 from google images (not a very good quality) but beak and other features fairly similar. Just a guess, most likely wrong. Could also be a common Starling.
Dale Huonville, Tasmania
As far as I know Starling Fledgelings are more grey and have dark legs. I did think of Silvereyes, but I had some in my garden last season, and they don't have that kind of eye ring, it's more like a yellowish bold patch around the eye.
Someone will post a photo and tell us any minute now, then we'll go: O,yes
M-L
I reckon it's way too small for a starling it was smaller than an adult pardalote and I reckon a starling pup would be about the same size as a myna, I've seen and resued a few noisy nestlings in the past and they were much bigger. It flew quite well and I know the tails are small when young but It seemed more proficient than one so seemingly young. So the small tail could be indicative of a pardalote. The beak and stocky, ungangling legs are seemingly at odds with that hypotheses.
Also I grew up not far from that area and never saw a starling till I went to western Sydney to play sport at high school. I still do a lot of spotting up that way and no starlings. (that of course is not to say they haven't started moving in)