Scrubwren? Thornbill? Fantail?

9 posts / 0 new
Last post
RogerM
RogerM's picture
Scrubwren? Thornbill? Fantail?

There are so many small brown birds!
Below are some birds I have photographed this last few days. I think I know teh Grey Fantail, the White-browed Scrubwren and the Brown Thornbill. I have included these for comparison. The brown Thornbill is meant to have a red eye I think, but sometimes it seems not to red. Anyway .........
the first photo (DSC_0954.jpg) is the one I am currently stuck with.

Mystery Thornbill???? (any suggestions?)


Grey-Fantail (some have a lot of brown)


Brown-Thornbill (red eye)


Brown-Thornbill (no red eye)


White-browed Scrubwren (longer bill - similar tail)

Comments welcome on ID of any or all, regards Roger
:')

timmo
timmo's picture

Hi Roger,

Personally I'd punt for it being a White-browed Scrubwren.
It doesn't seem to have quite the full brow yet, and the tail appears a little bit different, so perhaps it's a juvenile, or female?

Cheers
Tim
Brisbane

timmo
timmo's picture

Just reading my Simpson & Day guide, and it suggests juvenile is "Always duller than female, browner; eyebrow undeveloped."
and that the female is usually greyer than the male.

Cheers
Tim
Brisbane

Windhover
Windhover's picture

Immature Grey Fantails have a lot of brown. I believe your second last image is a Striated Thornbill (hence the lack of red eye too).

cheers

GregL
GregL's picture

The difference between the brown and striated thornbill is the top of the head. The brown has a little coloured patch above the bill but the striated has stripes on top of the head, so your third photo is a brown and the fourth a striated.
Not much help if you see them from below.
The mystery bird probably a white browed scrubwren.

RogerM
RogerM's picture

Thanks to all of you for your comments and advice, the thornbills are very confusing. (I will have to relabel some of my photos) .... like I said There are so many small brown birds!
:')

Andy
Andy's picture

I wuold agree that without a doubt, the 1st and 5th are White-browed Scrubwrens. The white spot on the "shoulder" are characteristic of that species.

I recently took a very, very bad photo of the W-b Scrubwren, so it's lovely to see a good photo of them! Thanks for posting.

Andy.

Andy
Andy's picture

Whoops sorry... I see that you'd already id'd the last photo as the scrubwren. I think that the first one is also the scrubwren.

Windhover
Windhover's picture

I was too worried about the Striated Thornbill and also missed the WBSW. Both first and last are White-browed Scrubwren images. :) Congrats!

 and   @birdsinbackyards
                 Subscribe to me on YouTube