Whistler - Olive or Grey ?

5 posts / 0 new
Last post
gphe
gphe's picture
Whistler - Olive or Grey ?

Can any one help me identify this bird please.
Location Wallalong NSW. I was attracted to a different bird sound - sort of a sweet tweet repeated often.
There were about 4 or five of these flying quickly around bushes in our garden - they appeared to be chasing each other, then stopping for short breaks.
I am fairly certain they are Whistlers of some sort, and am leaning towards a Grey Whistler  mainly because they were a soft grey and not  very olive in colour, though they don't seem to be light enough on the belly for a Grey ?

Best true colour is the side shot in the bush. The others were take into early moring sun so have a bit of a yellow tint.
Any ideas.

Steven.McBride
Steven.McBride's picture

Australian Golden Whistler, female or young bird.

gphe
gphe's picture

Thank you 

I did wonder about Golden Whistler, but gopt a bit distracted as I didn't see a male in the group flying around and my book (The Australian Bird Guide by Peter Menkhorst etal) has the local subspecies as pectoralis which has conspicuous yellow belly or brown flight feathers, but it is probably adult female ssp youngi which appears to come out to the coast here.  or are the differences not that pronounced ?

Steven.McBride
Steven.McBride's picture

Are you looking at the correct drawing for adult female pectoralis, they usually only have yellow in the vent area, not a conspicuous yellow belly, the exception being old females or immature males.  Subspecies youngi may be possible in your area, & you may also get ssp glaucura, which migrate from Tassie to the mainland in winter.  BTW, did you look at the range map for Grey Whistler, you area is a very long way out of range for them.

gphe
gphe's picture

Thanks, I was looking at immature or old female with more yellow belly !
Yes a second look at range fro Grey I realised that was wrong :-)

 and   @birdsinbackyards
                 Subscribe to me on YouTube