ID thoughts on this strange passerine at Akaroa?
Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2018 8:29 pm
Hi folks,
I encountered this bird while doing a bush bird survey transect on the waterway track at the end of Alymers Valley Road, Akaroa, Banks Peninsula, on Thursday 16 August.
I was drawn to a series of unusual loud single note calls that sounded similar to a Greenfinch's contact call and followed the sound to locate a bird perched on a branch overhanging the track about 15 m up from the gate. Habitat was native forest (mahoe, broadleaf, kanuka, lemonwood) with abundant onga onga understorey.
It appeared to be approx. Greenfinch-sized with medium length, lightly forked tail. It held a very upright body position when perched. I took a series of photos with my really crap Fuji finepix camera on 30x digital zoom, the majority of which auto-focused on vegetation behind the bird and are blurred.
The bird had dark crown and ear coverts, contrasting with a pale chin/throat/upper breast, a faint dark grey "rugby league jersey" V band on its lower breast (which changed in extent depending on what angle the bird was viewed at), a lemon belly, smooth medium-grey sides and flanks, dark grey undertail, brownish wings, and back. Feet appeared light brown-orangey. The eye was dark and the bill was very fine like a Dunnock's rather than thick and stubby like a finch. At one point it flew to a higher branch, showing no sign of a wing bar or pale feather edgings in the wings.
After the initial period of loud single notes, it leapt into full song, sounding similar to a Dunnock's song.
I'd love to turn this into something different - and it kinda looked a lttle bit like a Jungle-flycatcher (Cyornis sp.) but looking thru various Aussie/SE Asian/East Asian fieldguides there's nothing I can make it in to and I'm resigned to the liklihood thats its probably just a funny Dunnock.
Anyway, as we so seldom have challenging passerine ID puzzles in this country, I thought I'd share it.
Firstly, here's the location
and here's some pics:
I encountered this bird while doing a bush bird survey transect on the waterway track at the end of Alymers Valley Road, Akaroa, Banks Peninsula, on Thursday 16 August.
I was drawn to a series of unusual loud single note calls that sounded similar to a Greenfinch's contact call and followed the sound to locate a bird perched on a branch overhanging the track about 15 m up from the gate. Habitat was native forest (mahoe, broadleaf, kanuka, lemonwood) with abundant onga onga understorey.
It appeared to be approx. Greenfinch-sized with medium length, lightly forked tail. It held a very upright body position when perched. I took a series of photos with my really crap Fuji finepix camera on 30x digital zoom, the majority of which auto-focused on vegetation behind the bird and are blurred.
The bird had dark crown and ear coverts, contrasting with a pale chin/throat/upper breast, a faint dark grey "rugby league jersey" V band on its lower breast (which changed in extent depending on what angle the bird was viewed at), a lemon belly, smooth medium-grey sides and flanks, dark grey undertail, brownish wings, and back. Feet appeared light brown-orangey. The eye was dark and the bill was very fine like a Dunnock's rather than thick and stubby like a finch. At one point it flew to a higher branch, showing no sign of a wing bar or pale feather edgings in the wings.
After the initial period of loud single notes, it leapt into full song, sounding similar to a Dunnock's song.
I'd love to turn this into something different - and it kinda looked a lttle bit like a Jungle-flycatcher (Cyornis sp.) but looking thru various Aussie/SE Asian/East Asian fieldguides there's nothing I can make it in to and I'm resigned to the liklihood thats its probably just a funny Dunnock.
Anyway, as we so seldom have challenging passerine ID puzzles in this country, I thought I'd share it.
Firstly, here's the location
and here's some pics: