What I 'think' I have here is Rufous fantail, white-browed scrubwren and well the last one I have no idea
all taken at daisy hill conservation park SEQ
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I agree with the white-browed scrubwren. And I think your 3rd one is a Black-faced Monarch. It seems to be lacking the black face so I assume it's a juvenile
+1 for White Browed Scrubwren and Black Faced Monarch. As for the first one, it certainly looks like my bird-book's diagram of a Rufous Fantail. But I've never gotten close enough to one to get a really good look, let alone a photo!
thank you rachaelbaggallay and Lachlan, three new birds for me
The Rufous do seem to like to keep their distance unlike the greys who love to attract your attention. They were really high up in the tree's at first and it wasnt until two hours later one decieded to venture close enough for a photo
Hi Cassie,
I agree with rufous fantail and Black Faced Monarch however I am farily certain that the middle photo is of a yellow throated scrubwren
I agree with baby birdwatcher- I too think the middle pic is definitely a yellow throated scrubwren.
I didn't think the throat patch was yellow enough to be a Yellow Throated Scrubwren? It looks more like the combination of shadows and lighting to me.
I beleive that you have a young Rufous Fantail, a White-browed Scrubwren and a young Black-faced Monarch.
I will attach a Yellow-fronted Scrubwren pic that shows more yellow
also I need to consult a field guide but recall that the Yellow-throated is an altitudinal bird and is found at 500+m above sea level and that would exclude Daisy Hill.
eremaea does not show any recorded YFS sightings in Daisy Hill.
Peter
Hi Pacman, I was basing YTSW on the size and depth of the black patch below the eyebrow. I have never seen that on a WBSW. I live in the Blue Mountains so perhaps WBSW have much darker and larger black patches in SEQ? That pic shows a really large dark patch. It also has a dark eye like a YTSW while WBSW have a very pale yellowish eye. Still not conviced :-)
Hi Lachlan,
Pacman has made a simiar comment but the eyecolour and the depth and size of the black facial/cheek patch under the eyebrow makes it hard for me to be convinced it is a WBSW. I have seen this species in the "lowlands" around Newcastle so checked the NSW wildlife Atlas for recent records near the QLD border and there seems to be records at low altitudes. But if consensus is WBSW happy to concede :-)
Don't concede just because of consensus! Weight of opinion doesn't mean veracity.
FWIW, the subspecies of WBSW in Newcastle would be Sericornis frontalis frontalis (the nominate race). I don't know how far into Qld it extends, but another subspecies, S. frontalis laevigaster, is found from the Atherton Tablelands to north east NSW. The nothern subspecies does seem to be more yellow than the NSW subspecies, but I don't know how much the two coexist, as I have some photos from Currimundi on the Sunshine coast that look more like southern birds than northern ones. My bird book also suggests that the northern subspecies isn't as dark as the NSW one, so that might answer some of the discrepancy you see?
Also, but I'm not sure how diagnostic it is, Cassie's bird seems to have a very light eye. This could be just reflection, but YTSW has red eyes, which I would have thought would be darker?
I understand that the darkness of the eye patch is gender based, ie black = male, grey = female; pic #2 = male, my pic = female.
My pic is from Boorganna NR in the hills west of Port Macquarie near Comboyne.
Also the WBS tail is darker towards the tip as in pic #2 whereas the YTS tail colour does not vary
An eremaea search of the 20 most recent Qld sightings show them all at altitude eg Mary Cairncross Reserve, D'Aguilar National Park (Maiala), O'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat whereas the NSW sightings include Ourimbah RTA Reserve, Lisarow. Seems that Qld birds might prefer higher altitude than the NSW birds.
Peter
With all the information I have on both species now I am positive it's a WBSW. the eyes were dark but flash was used that caused a reflection and could have also altered the colouring of the white along with the poor lighting. I think the call is the deal braker here though, I checked both their profiles on biby and I have no doubt the calls I heard were the of the WBSW
Definitely a Yellow-throated Scrubwren... don't discount imm. Spectacled Monarch... Lorne, Bundanoon, NSW.
IMO, the 2nd photo in post#1 is a White-browed Scrunwren. Besides some points aready mentioned above supporting WBSW, the white marks on the shoulder of the wing, & the faint dark line on each side of the throat curving up towards the bill & sort of creating a mirror of the eyebrow (hope that makes sense), both indicate WBSW & not YTSW.
Re the Monarch in post#1: It's a Black-faced Monarch.
Spectacled Monarchs have a white belly(including young ones) & they never have a grey throat like the bird in the photo. Their orange breast goes right up to their black chin (or pehaps small greyish chin in young ones).
Sorry, original photo is indeed a WB Scrubwren. I was looking at obvious YT Scrubwren shot, like a dill! Yep, you're right about BF Monarch, Steve. Well done. Lorne