Baffled???

ANY IDEAS??

Philip found this little bird at his gate the other day. It was dead under a tree and it has us both puzzled.

It is the size of a finch and we think the blue beak is very finch like.

It has a very white body and tail Wings too are mainly white with some brown  feathers among the white. There are several brown feathers in the wings. Perhaps these are part of the emerging adult plumage.

The head and rear of the body are a pale brown apart from a white patch on the forehead.

Neither Philip nor I can remember seeing anything similar before nor can we find anything like it in our books.

This little bird is a bit of a mystery at the moment.

 

 

White-fronted Chat

WHITE-FRONTED CHAT ( Epthianura-albifrons)

There were a number of these little birds about the edge of the sewerage ponds the other day.



I often see them, usually at a distance. They are very hard to get close to. The moment I  begin to get close and lift my head above the pond bank, they are away.

They don't travel far, thirty or forty metres, just far enough to be out of range of the camera. Then they stop, sit on some rocks or on the stems of a shrub and watch. "Well what are you going to do now?" they say.

 If I try to move forward on my my belly with my head well down, one or more will fly up over the bank to see where I am doing. They soon pass the message along before moving on another thirty or forty metres.


They are often on groups of ten to twenty, but just as often a single bird will be sitting amongst the rocks on the edge of a pond.

The first of these pictures show males with quite strong markings. They have a black half cap which extends down to the bib across the breast.

The female in the lower photograph has much more subtle colouring. She does not have the black cap of the male, more a grey buff coloured cape covering her head and shoulders.

Australian Pipit

AUSTRALIAN (RICHARD'S) PIPIT (Anthus novaeseelandiae 0r Anthus australis)

It was a beautiful summer day today. There has been much heavy rain over the last few weeks and there is plenty of green grass around. A late start to summer is always welcome. Dams are full and the fire season is yet to start.






I sat in a grassy hollow for an hour or two, watching these birds cavorting. I can only assume, they birds are still mating and nesting. There was a lot of action and much calling from one bird to the next.

There were a number of birds about, individuals and pairs. All seemed vert busy. The pairs would browse together on the ground before flying vigorously into the air. Up they would go, dropping before flying up again with much calling as they did so. Then off they would then fly to another clump of grass.

I believe they are Australian Pipits. Several had stripped chests rather than the creamy colour my books show, more like the Little Grassbird than the Pipits. Several I could see were quite tall and thin, larger than the Grassbirds. I think they are Pippits.