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! 
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hummingbird observed in oz (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter wolfgang
- Start date
humminbird
Well-known member
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".
I appologize for not recognizing what was obvious to you, but not everyone would agree it was so obvious.
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
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birdboybowley
Well-known member.....apparently so ;)
humminbird
Well-known member
I apologize if I sound a little brisque, but an image picked from the gallery is meaningless. When someone can provide us with an image of a hummingbird they photographed in Australia (and there had better be some pretty convincing evidence it is taken down under, you may change a few opinions. The natural history of this family ties it very closely to the Americas folks.
Allen S. Moore
Well-known member
From my (admittedly) limited experience of birdwatching in the Cairns area of NEQ (about 10 days in 2006 and 2008) olive-backed sunbirds do nest at the "end of the house". There was a used nest of a pair at the end of the little house that I stayed in at Cassowary House 2 years ago. Another thought is that the sunbirds' nests are so different from those of hummingbirds photographed and published. I wonder what the Australian "hummingbird" nests are like? I usually saw olive-backed sunbirds in pairs, too.
Allen
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chowchilla
Well-known member
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...
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...
hummers in Bundaberg?
I now live in Queensland but 56 of my 65 years I lived in Georgia in the US and had hummers galore around my feeders and flowers. I am also very familiar with the moths. What I saw this morning was not a hummer as I know them but it was the first time I've seen this behavior in Oz. Two small olive colored birds with long beaks were actually HOVERING in front of blossoms. Geraniums and Plumbago? were the flowers. Their wing beats were very rapid but not as rapid as a hummer's. They were also bigger than the hummers I've seen. Any identification?
I now live in Queensland but 56 of my 65 years I lived in Georgia in the US and had hummers galore around my feeders and flowers. I am also very familiar with the moths. What I saw this morning was not a hummer as I know them but it was the first time I've seen this behavior in Oz. Two small olive colored birds with long beaks were actually HOVERING in front of blossoms. Geraniums and Plumbago? were the flowers. Their wing beats were very rapid but not as rapid as a hummer's. They were also bigger than the hummers I've seen. Any identification?
birdboybowley
Well-known member.....apparently so ;)
Hi Kiss, welcome to BF
Your birds were probably Olive-backed Sunbirds
Your birds were probably Olive-backed Sunbirds
chowchilla
Well-known member
I agree.
Jacana
Will Jones
type hummingbird in australia into google and this thread pops up...
Motmot
Eduardo Amengual
The image of the type of hummingbird has not been well chosen, falsape. The "tiny creature" attached is the 15cm long Violet Sabrewing, the largest hummingbird found outside of South America, a non migratory species that inhabits mountain forests. Keep trying.
colonelboris
Right way up again
I've watched Brown Honeyeaters and Eastern Spinebills and can see how they could be confused. I guess at an outside chance, a hummingbird that stowed in an airliner's hold might just keep alive by entering a torpid state, or have brought a packed lunch. Otherwise, it would have to island hop across the Pacific (looking at the Pacific on Google maps, there's a surprising number of islands out there), presenting a tasty, sugary meal to any predator on the way, or come down through Asia. Anyway you look at it, it's highly unlikely.
Hummingbird in OZ
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.
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.
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MJB
Well-known member
Umm, no. Although John Gould is best-known for his paintings of Australian birds, he also painted birds from many parts of the world.
"Gould published: A Monograph of the Trochilidae or Humming Birds with 360 plates (1849–61); The Mammals of Australia (1845–63), Handbook to the Birds of Australia (1865), The Birds of Asia (1850–83), The Birds of Great Britain (1862–73) and The Birds of New Guinea and the adjacent Papuan Islands (1875–88)."
"Throughout his professional life Gould had a strong interest in hummingbirds. He accumulated a collection of 320 species, which he exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851. Despite his interest, Gould had never seen a live hummingbird. In May 1857 he travelled to the United States with his second son, Charles. He arrived in New York too early in the season to see hummingbirds in that city, but on 21 May 1857, in Bartram's Gardens in Philadelphia, he finally saw his first live one, a Ruby-throated Hummingbird. He then continued to Washington D.C. where he saw large numbers in the gardens of the Capitol."
Thanks, Wikipedia.
Furthermore, the image you use has been used by a supplier of themed items illustrated by Victorian (ie from the time of Queen Victoria, not from Victoria in Oz) images, and is titled: "Wm Jardine's Rough Legged Racket Tailed Humming Bird Stationery Note Flats Set " (see http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/pro...torian_Hummingbird/PaperBooks/Stationery/Sets).
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
Thank you MJB for your informative reply that I found very interesting. However, I did see the bird described which looked a lot like the attached painting except it seemed to be brown. Wolfgang has also spotted a hummingbird in NSW although I don't know if his had a streamer or racquet-tail, mine certainly did.
Jeff Hopkins
Just another...observer
Peter C.
...just zis guy, you know?
... then it wasn't a hummingbird. Yes, there are some brown, or at least brown-ish, hummingbirds in South America (Giant comes to mind, some of the Hermits as well), but none of them have tails like that.
Do any of the Honeyeaters have fancy tails? I have seen some with distinctly hummingbird-like bills...
PC.
