I originally thought this bird species was a Yellow Thornbill. Then I checked out the Yellow-rumped Thornbill and it has a lot of similarites to that species, except it sounds slightly different; has no yellow on it at all - anywhere; and the underside of this bird except for the throat, is a medium grass green colour. I'm confused. Does anyone know if this indeed a Yellow-rumped Thornbill despite it's grass green (instead of yellow/cream) colour?
The two photos are taken of the same bird and were taken a few minutes ago here in Tenterfield, NSW, in my front garden..
Yes, definitely a YRT
Tegan - Melbourne Vic.
but I think a juvenile
Tegan - Melbourne Vic.
Yes, yellow-rumped thornbill. Black cap with white spots is diagnostic
Ryu
Canberra
Aiming for DSLR-quality shots with a bridge camera
No yellow? Just wait til you see it's rump, Shirley.
Thanks for all your comments guys. I get confused a lot with the local bird life sometimes. I mean, I know this particular bird looks like and is a Yellow rumped Thornbill and there are not many species of little, native birds in the immediate area. Maybe 4-5 at the most. I know the sounds each one makes too. But then there are days/weeks when my bird identifying ability gets thrown out the window when the natural lighting (with the naked eye) goes terribly wrong. I've mentioned this before on other threads, of how the colours of bird feathers change due to strong light reflections in the air (coming up from the ground perhaps or from the sky downwards). I believe it is somehow caused by nearby plant life - with the green colour anyway.
There are times when these Yellow rumped Thornbills take on a green colour, like recently. But it also shows up o the underside of house sparrow juveniles too in my front garden.
During the last 2 days, not including today, natural lighting seems to have restored itself back to normal. I'm now seeing these Thornbills with yellowy cream colours to them but also its still a bright lemony-yellow-cream colour in the rear end of the bird.
Woko, spotting the rump colour of these birds is difficult as the local Thornbills hold their wings over the back of their rump for the most part, as viewed in the 2nd picture I added to this thread.
One thing I do know about the Yellow-rumped Thornbills - they like my honeysuckle creeper when it is in flower. It is infrequently producing a flower or two every now and then in Autumn. It mostly bursts out in flower in summer.
I'm at Tenterfield, NSW. (Formerly known as "Hyperbirds".)
The Yellow Rumped's yellow rump is best seen when the bird is in flight.