Thursday 29 October 2015

Painted Honeyeaters revisited

Before having another look for Painted Honeyeaters, I called by to see how the Tawny Frogmouths were getting on. Every picture tells a thousand words.

Mr and Mrs T Frogmouth proudly announce the arrival of twins
Then on to the PH site. I still haven't quite got a male Mistletoebird in sharp focus but getting better.


But what about the Painted Honeyeaters? The site is an excellent one for birds. My list was 36 bird species in 90 minutes. Using the Morcombe phone app, I played the call of the PH so that I would be able to recognise it - my best hope of finding the bird. But no calls at all.

Then I spotted two birds way up in the canopy, pr 30 metres up, which looked good for PH. Took several photos then clapped the bins on them but, nah, they were "just" White-winged Trillers, of which there were several calling a lot of the time.

Eventually, I called it quits and as I was making my way back to the car, I heard one call of the Painted Honeyeater. I went back but couldn't find it/them. However, when I looked at the images of the W-wT on the computer, I realised that my ID of Painted Honeyeater had been correct. Here is the one image which shows the identifying features of pink beak, yellow edges to feathers on wing, white underneath [just like a W-wT] and with the flecking of a male PH. Impossible to see on a bird that does not stay still and always keeps leaves between them and me. Life tick.

Magic. f8 and be there!


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