Some from Cairns, Australia (1 Viewer)

[Mari E]

Hi, I spent several great days in Cairns, but I have some photos that I'm struggling to ID.

I'm sorry that all of the photos are heavily cropped & out of focus, backlit etc.

All the photos taken in Cairns.

1. Honeyeater, but what species?
2. Looks very dark overall but might just be the light?
3. Some kind of a flycatcher? Really have no idea.
4. Greater/lesser frigatebird... (taken on the way to Michaelmas cay)
5. Terrible photo I know, but some kind of a finch?

Also, there was one bird that I could not get a photo of. I saw it by a stream in a small quiet neighbourhood. It was small(sparrow size or smaller), overall light brownish with no distinctive marking. It kept on flying to the surface of the stream to catch something and flying back to a shrub by the stream. It was so small and restless that I couldn't even have a decent look at it...
Probably impossible to ID, but it would be great if someone could give ideas or at least point me in the right direction.

Thanks in advance!

 

[MacNara]

Hi Mari, Welcome back to Bird Forum!

I see now that you have moved to Hokkaido. Sapporo? If I recall, you were in Kyoto when you first moved back from the UK four or five years ago.

I'm glad you had a good time in Cairns. My wife and I went there for the first time (first trip to Australia) in 2010 (because of the cheap-ish Jetstar flights from Kansai Airport). We've been back four times since, and this last new year holiday, we made our first trip outside Queensland to Ayers Rock, Melbourne and Sydney. The birding is much better in northern Queensland, but the food is much better in Melbourne (especially) and Sydney.

Were you surprised at how many of the staff in Cairns (hotels, restaurants, boats) were Japanese on a working holiday visa (well, I expect Chinese are more common these days)?

Anyway, about your birds.

I'm not an expert on Australian birds, and obviously since you've posted ones you found difficult, you will have looked them up in the books, and your eyes will be better than mine. However, I'll give my opinion, which will bump this to the top of the list, and then maybe more knowledgeable others will pop up with the correct answers. (After all the help you got on BF planning the trip, I was surprised to see no answers to your questions.)

1. I think the only honeyeater with this face pattern is Brown Honeyeater (yellow stripe appears to break in the eye with the ends not aligning). In my Australian bird book, after I had seen it, I wrote a note to myself that the gape is longer and yellower than the book (Slater) shows. I think in your photo, overexposure, or age of the bird means that the patch behind the eye looks like a stripe, not a patch).

2. I lightened this up, and it still looks dark-ish, so I think it's Dusky Honeyeater (which we saw in that area).

3. I really can't work out what this is, even though the eyepattern should be a simple ID point. My best guess is immature (Western) Mangrove Gerygone (we saw this in the mangroves at the north of the esplanade in Cairns although we didn't manage to get a photo). If not, Grey Whistler, or Lemon-bellied Flycatcher. But the eye pattern is very distinctive, and so I think the Gerygone is most likely.

4. I think this is Great Frigagtebird based on the lack of underarm whiteness, and the fact that this is what we saw at Michaelmas Cay.

5. Yes, it looks like a finch in your photo, but I can't find a match. It's possible that the photo is misrepresenting the bill shape, and that it's something else, however.

If you are planning to be in the Kansai area sometime, do get in touch (PM on Bird Forum) and we could see some birds and have lunch or dinner. We're right next to Todaiji in Nara. I'm more Cambridge than Oxford, but I'm sure we'd get on fine nonetheless. If you're a 'poor' student, we even have a spare room (friends welcome with you also).

 

[mjh73]

Finch is a juvenile Chestnut-breasted Mannikin

 

[TheFlyingRat]

Bridled Honeyeater, perhaps.

 

[Mari E]

Hi Mari, Welcome back to Bird Forum!

I see now that you have moved to Hokkaido. Sapporo? If I recall, you were in Kyoto when you first moved back from the UK four or five years ago.

I'm glad you had a good time in Cairns. My wife and I went there for the first time (first trip to Australia) in 2010 (because of the cheap-ish Jetstar flights from Kansai Airport). We've been back four times since, and this last new year holiday, we made our first trip outside Queensland to Ayers Rock, Melbourne and Sydney. The birding is much better in northern Queensland, but the food is much better in Melbourne (especially) and Sydney.

Were you surprised at how many of the staff in Cairns (hotels, restaurants, boats) were Japanese on a working holiday visa (well, I expect Chinese are more common these days)?

Anyway, about your birds.

I'm not an expert on Australian birds, and obviously since you've posted ones you found difficult, you will have looked them up in the books, and your eyes will be better than mine. However, I'll give my opinion, which will bump this to the top of the list, and then maybe more knowledgeable others will pop up with the correct answers. (After all the help you got on BF planning the trip, I was surprised to see no answers to your questions.)

1. I think the only honeyeater with this face pattern is Brown Honeyeater (yellow stripe appears to break in the eye with the ends not aligning). In my Australian bird book, after I had seen it, I wrote a note to myself that the gape is longer and yellower than the book (Slater) shows. I think in your photo, overexposure, or age of the bird means that the patch behind the eye looks like a stripe, not a patch).

2. I lightened this up, and it still looks dark-ish, so I think it's Dusky Honeyeater (which we saw in that area).

3. I really can't work out what this is, even though the eyepattern should be a simple ID point. My best guess is immature (Western) Mangrove Gerygone (we saw this in the mangroves at the north of the esplanade in Cairns although we didn't manage to get a photo). If not, Grey Whistler, or Lemon-bellied Flycatcher. But the eye pattern is very distinctive, and so I think the Gerygone is most likely.

4. I think this is Great Frigagtebird based on the lack of underarm whiteness, and the fact that this is what we saw at Michaelmas Cay.

5. Yes, it looks like a finch in your photo, but I can't find a match. It's possible that the photo is misrepresenting the bill shape, and that it's something else, however.

If you are planning to be in the Kansai area sometime, do get in touch (PM on Bird Forum) and we could see some birds and have lunch or dinner. We're right next to Todaiji in Nara. I'm more Cambridge than Oxford, but I'm sure we'd get on fine nonetheless. If you're a 'poor' student, we even have a spare room (friends welcome with you also).

Hi MacNara,

Thanks for the warm welcome!

I was in Kyoto for 5 years before I moved to Sapporo for uni. I had been away from BirdForum for a while because I was too busy with all the studying, but I’m hoping to spend more time both here and out in the fields, now that things are all starting to settle down.

I was definitely surprised at the number of Japanese people staying in Cairns.... and that most people aboard on Jetstar were Japanese tourists!


Thank you for the ID, these photos were baffling me so it’s great that I’ve finally got some cleared up by someone who knows the area and its birds better than me. The ID points were really helpful too.

I guess I wasn’t paying enough attention about juvenile birds, really need to study more before I can hopefully visit Australia again!

Thanks again, and I will be visiting Kansai sometime so it would be great if you could teach me the birds in the area!

 

[Mari E]

Great thanks also to mjh73 and TheFlyingRat,

Chestnut-breasted mannikin didn't occure to me because I hadn't seen any in the area, but looking at juvenile photos it definitely was one, so thank you!

I just cannot seem to be able to get grips with honeyeaters, so will have to do more research about them, especially juveniles....

Thanks again!

 

[mjh73]

No worries, glad I could help