herald petrel
Member
My wife saw what she described as a robin type bird with yellow below, brown back, no superciliary or wing bars, dark thin bill, like a robin in profile, brown on crown/head. It did not behave like a warbler and was just like a robin in its movements. It did not raise or lower its tail, so held it like a robin's. It seemed to be interested in the insects on the pile of apples in the recycling bin. It had some pale white in the belly area, so was not completely yellow underneath. It stayed motionless on the handle of a small recycling bin in the middle of the garden for about 30 seconds and behaved like a robin.
This was in our garden in greater London yesterday afternoon. I did not see any detail on the bird, but saw it in slilhouette and it flew up to the apple tree with a straight flight and looked in profile like a robin, tail medium length, perhaps slightly longer than a robin's. I saw it look brown above.
My son also saw it in flight and thought he saw some brown hatching on the back with greyer at the sides.
I went through a lot of common species to establish what it was not, as she is not a birder, and we quickly ruled out the commoner species and so I was left with only rare birds.
She saw the picture of female Siberian Blue Robin and thought it similar, so the yellow colouration could have been more buff possibly, but more yellow than buff. The tail looked dark - not blue. She felt it was too yellow though for this.
We went through the sizes and she thought bigger than a house sparrow. On further questioning she thought it could have been a bit smaller.
I showed her a picture of a female redstart, which seemed similar, except for the yellow below.
She also thought female red-breasted flycatcher was similar in profile, except again for the yellow.
I guess we will never know what it really was but it seems an intriguing bird.
I spent the afternoon looking out for it but to no avail and as she is a non-birder I could not be certain it was not a commoner bird.
What did worry me was that she was certain she had never seen it before and was quite excited about it.
Any comments welcome.
This was in our garden in greater London yesterday afternoon. I did not see any detail on the bird, but saw it in slilhouette and it flew up to the apple tree with a straight flight and looked in profile like a robin, tail medium length, perhaps slightly longer than a robin's. I saw it look brown above.
My son also saw it in flight and thought he saw some brown hatching on the back with greyer at the sides.
I went through a lot of common species to establish what it was not, as she is not a birder, and we quickly ruled out the commoner species and so I was left with only rare birds.
She saw the picture of female Siberian Blue Robin and thought it similar, so the yellow colouration could have been more buff possibly, but more yellow than buff. The tail looked dark - not blue. She felt it was too yellow though for this.
We went through the sizes and she thought bigger than a house sparrow. On further questioning she thought it could have been a bit smaller.
I showed her a picture of a female redstart, which seemed similar, except for the yellow below.
She also thought female red-breasted flycatcher was similar in profile, except again for the yellow.
I guess we will never know what it really was but it seems an intriguing bird.
I spent the afternoon looking out for it but to no avail and as she is a non-birder I could not be certain it was not a commoner bird.
What did worry me was that she was certain she had never seen it before and was quite excited about it.
Any comments welcome.