Moluccas, Indonesia, Nov 2015 (1 Viewer)

[GDK]

A couple of birds from the Moluccas that I would appreciate a little help on, if anyone is able to offer an opinion.

The first is a flycatcher from Buru. The two main options are Grey-streaked Flycatcher and Streaky-breasted Jungle Flycatcher. This to me looks like it could be the latter (brownish plumage, face pattern, smallish primary projection), but it is well outside its altitudinal range - it was taken at more or less sea level. I cant think of any other suitable migrant flycatcher options. These are the only three photos I have of it.

The second bird is a kingfisher from Seram, taken at 1300m in primary forest/road edge. The default is Sacred Kingfisher, and it has the standard orange wash over the front (if a little reduced). However two things dont seem right - the blue crown, which i could probably ignore, and the very well defined loral spot with a lack of flaring above the eye, which im struggling to ignore. Is this within variation for this species? The bird looked very blue in the field - but was only on view for c20 seconds. A second option could be Forest Kingfisher (a migrant to the region but unknown on Seram), which is however normally just blue and white looking at google images. Again I only took four photos before it disappeared, and these two are representative.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Larry Sweetland]

the flycatcher's defo not Grey-streaked. I've no experience of Streaky-breasted Jungle, but it looks a good match with the OBC images to me.

kingfisher looks much better for Forest than Sacred to me if they're really the only options. Is (one of the recent splits of) Collared also a possibility there? Of course for all I know there may be a local subsp of Sacred that looks like that!

 

[GDK]

Thanks Larry.

re the Kingfisher, I had dismissed Collared Kingfisher on the basis that the form that occurs in the region is said to be the nominate chloris, which doesnt seem to vary much from what ive seen (your typical white-blue-green Collared). I dont recall us seeing any Collared Kingfishers on Seram, just Sacred and Lazuli in the lowlands of the north coast. Im guessing it does occur though, and is therefore worth considering too.

Cheers

 

[James Eaton]

Flycatcher is the Jungle Flycatcher - Streaky-breasted/Buru. Nice big, uniformly dark head. It's been recorded down to sea-level, just much rarer down there.

Kingfisher - appears to be Collared, a common bird in the submontane forests on both Seram and Buru. I wouldn't expect Scared to occur so high there.

James

 

[GDK]

Cheers James,

I guess I did see Collared on Seram then Funny how it didnt register as one, saw loads of them on Buru immediately prior (and elsewhere throughout the region). The darkness and slight orange wash to it put me off that conclusion.

Looking forward to your field guide coming out in the spring.


Thanks both for the replies,