I saw a rufous flycatcher near Blackheath on the grand canyon walk today, what a friendly and beautiful bird it is. My wife has a bird phobia which has been improving due to all the small non threating birds on our place, but the rufous had her very nervous it flew so close around us. No trouble IDing it at all, I noticed our field guide doesn't even have a similar species entry for them.
Wrong name of course, should be rufous fantail.
Hi GregL, I had the same experience with a fantail when I was walking up my paddock one day. It was not scared at all and flew right beside me along the fence line, it was wonderful to see such a little bird just wanting to tag along.
IN NZ the fantails do that all the time, I was always told that our sweat attracted insects that they like. I have found the rufous to be very shy Greg so you are lucky. Have more luck with the greys up here.
Sunshine Coast Queensland
I've only seen a few grey fantails (at first I thought they were rufous fantails only to discover they were juvenile greys :|) on my holidays and they aren't afraid at all too come close, why is it that the fan tailed birds are so unafraid of humans?