birdboybowley
Well-known member.....apparently so ;)
I'd find it easier to believe Ivory-billed Woodies are still in the US than hummers are in Oz!
Carlos:The fact that they 'always were in pairs' screams non-hummingbird. Carlos
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.
FIrstly,let me say I am not an avid bird watcher or expert of any kind,but I know what I know from visiting museums,reading books,watching documentaries and generally observing the world around me.
Back in 1991 I lived on the south coast of NSW Australia in Batemans Bay. One morning i was out in the back yard and I heard a fairly loud humming sound near our passion fruit vine and turned to look expecting to see a bumble bee as they were often in our garden.What i saw though,was definitely a hummingbird and i was quite surprised as I was under the impression that they did not exist in Australia.I spent a good ten minutes watching this tiny creature and could easily have touched it.I realized I should get a camera but by the time i got back it had gone.
I have searched the image files on Google and the following image shows the type of hummingbird i saw
Carlos:
While I agree with you, you would be amazed how many times I am told by people that they have "one pair of hummingbirds" or "two pair of hummingbirds - one at each end of the house". Despite what we know, they "always see them in pairs".
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.
I agree.Hi Kiss, welcome to BF
Your birds were probably Olive-backed Sunbirds
Hmmm, a number of posts from 'newbies' all purportedly from Aus claiming to have seen hummingbirds and ignoring all expert opinions to the contrary that hummers do not and never have existed in Aus.
I can only conclude this is one person or maybe a few mates who have decided to take the piss for a bit of a laugh. At least it's all pretty harmless...
Back in 1991 I lived on the south coast of NSW Australia in Batemans Bay. One morning i was out in the back yard and I heard a fairly loud humming sound near our passion fruit vine and turned to look expecting to see a bumble bee as they were often in our garden.What i saw though,was definitely a hummingbird and i was quite surprised as I was under the impression that they did not exist in Australia.I spent a good ten minutes watching this tiny creature and could easily have touched it.I realized I should get a camera but by the time i got back it had gone.
I have searched the image files on Google and the following image shows the type of hummingbird i saw
To Wolfgang: Like you I recently saw a Victorian Racquet-Tailed Hummingbird in my garden near Daylesford, Victoria. It was about the size of a sparrow, brown with a very long streamer (racquet)-tail. I could not view the underside which may have had some colour because it just flew past me and then hid in a bush. It was such an amazing little bird and I have been trying to find out more about it. I have exhausted all google's offerings and now looking elsewhere. I can tell you that his bird was originally painted by the famous artist of Australian birds, John Gould (1804-1881) and have a photo of his painting. For him to have sighted this bird so long ago it must have existed, and for both you and I to have sighted it so recently it also confirms it's existence. I will try and post a photo of it that I found on google.
The only hummingbird species currently named as Racket-tailed is Racket-tailed Coquette Discosura longicaudus, but there are many streamertails, one of which could be the one in the illustration.
MJB
However, I did see the bird described which looked a lot like the attached painting except it seemed to be brown.