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hummingbird observed in oz (1 Viewer)

First all Greg, a warm welcome to Birdforum from all staff and moderators.

Now I know that you say with certainty that you saw a Hummingbird, but I can say with equal certainty that you didn't. ;) As others have said, we don't have Hummers here in Aus, and what you provide by way of a description fits that of a Hummingbird Hawk Moth. They can look remarkably like Hummingbirds, hence their name.

A photo would certainly clear the matter up anyway! :t:
 
Exactly. How many years ago did this thread start? 11? If hummingbirds were out there surely some of the more avid birders or ornithologists would have seen and said something by now...
 
This is a picture of a bird that I saw that behaves like a humingbird

Hi there

I was hoping to ID this bird that I saw on Friday at Maiala Recreation Area in the D'Aguilar Forest outside of Brisbane - on the rainforest loop walk.

I saw this bird and it beat its wing like a humingbird but it is too big (as far as I can tell having seen other humingbirds elsewhere in the world). It was very shifty and skittish. It then stopped for a single second and I was lucky to be able to capture this photo.

May be the person who originally started this post thread saw the same bird?

Anyway, what is this bird? I would say that it is slightly smaller than a sparrow.
 

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sylviadivemaster said:
Hi there

I was hoping to ID this bird that I saw on Friday at Maiala Recreation Area in the D'Aguilar Forest outside of Brisbane - on the rainforest loop walk.

I saw this bird and it beat its wing like a humingbird but it is too big (as far as I can tell having seen other humingbirds elsewhere in the world). It was very shifty and skittish. It then stopped for a single second and I was lucky to be able to capture this photo.

May be the person who originally started this post thread saw the same bird?

Anyway, what is this bird? I would say that it is slightly smaller than a sparrow.
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Welcome to Birdforum. I think your bird is a Brown Gerygone. There is a bird identification section of Birdforum that's probably a good place to get more opinions on its identity :t:
 
Hi everyone, this is obviously an old thread but I’ve just joined after googling hummingbirds in qld. Tonight at dusk I spotted what I thought was a hummingbird feeding on a flowering bush in my courtyard. I watched it for ages before my daughter got my phone for me to take a video. The video is only of its silhouette but I did see it up close. It didn’t have antenna like the hawk moth (I’m not saying that’s not what it is) and it flew directly above me with only a slight noise
 
Here is some screenshots as the video won’t load onto the site
 

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Looks like a Hawk Moth from these photos, the body is certainly the right shape. As I am sure you have gathered from this thread, hummingbirds do not occur in Australia.
 
Welsh Peregrine said:
Looks like a Hawk Moth from these photos, the body is certainly the right shape. As I am sure you have gathered from this thread, hummingbirds do not occur in Australia.
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Yes I read the whole thread before I posted haha. I don’t think it was a typical hummingbird, but up close it definitely looked more bird like than moth like (still I’m not saying it’s not a moth). It had tiny eyes and no antenna. I will look again tomorrow to see if it comes back
 
I understand that this thread is super old but just something I want to point out - because of extremely strict import laws, very few exotic animals of any kind are found in Australian zoos. If a hummingbird was theoretically seen in Australia, it couldn't be a zoo escapee because no Australian zoos keep hummingbirds. In case you are curious, this thread from another forum contains full lists of where exotic birds are kept in Australian zoos and private collections:

www.zoochat.com

Exotic Birds in Australia

To complement the other lists of mammals, reptiles and amphibians, zooboy28 and Chlidonias have constructed as complete a list as possible of the...
www.zoochat.com www.zoochat.com
 
wolfgang said:
hi!
a couple of weeks ago i sat on my veranda (northern rivers region, new south wales) and a very light drizzle of rain had just started. suddenly i saw a moth flying around a trachelospermum jasminoides (star jasmin) flower. somehow it all looked a bit strange, and to my total amazement, when i had a very close up look, the moth was in fact a miniture brown colored hummingbird!!
i gave not much thought about it, till my researches revieled that there are no hummingbirds described in australia.
the bird was observed from as close as 30-40cm,
it had brown color and a straight trunk, which it poked from one flower to the other. i had a good look at its head and trunk, and it was WITHOUT DOUBT A HUMMINGBIRD, and not a moth as the sydney museum try's to explain my observation. gee, they must think i am stupid, and not able to distinquish between moth and hummingbird. btw, i cannot recall hearing any sound.
i have some hopes though that some people will believe my observation,
because i found out that, the smallest bird in the world in fact is a hummingbird (mellisuga helenae) and it's native to cuba.
i mean my bird looked exactly like this bird only that it color was brown, and secondly, cuba and australia once where part of gondwana.
i kindly ask for support and ideas,
so i could obtain proof for my observation.
i don't think this ~50-60mm bird will be back soon,
i guess, it visits even that flower only rarely, and would mostly live only in the areas very jungle like overgrown closer to the river...
my only ideas so far are, constant video surveillance of the star jasmin, and placing a big net close to the plant so one could catch it. i took digi cam shots but cannot see much on them, they need processing.
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I had one come right up to me, same colouring as you describe and it hovered in the air in front of me and hovered backwards as well, when it flew off it went upside down and around. The only bird in the world that can do that is a Hummingbird! Get this Im in Darwin the Northern Territory. Your not crazy and my partner saw it as well. About 20cm in height and definately a Hummingbird!!!
 
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I definately saw a hummingbird in Darwin NT It was less than a metre from my face and broad daylight on my driveway and hovered and hovered/flew backwards! When it flew off it went upside down as well. 20cm height and assorted brown tans to body. Definately a hummingbird ! My partner saw it as well and said hey thats a hummingbird. Straight black beak
 
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