What Is This Bird?

[Sojourner]

lovezebs

It almost looks sort of like a chickadee only not roly-poly enough. I can't really see the beak at all. Is there any chance you could upload a larger picture? They're really small and I can't see details.

EDIT: Ooops, didn't realize those were stills from a video. Do you have a link to the video?

EDIT EDIT: I didn't even THINK of that, I assumed these must be N. American birds. Where WAS the video shot? Are we actually sure it's NOT an owl finch?

Also - TWO THOUSAND LIKES FOR LOVEZEBS! Mwah ha ha ha ha! It was so close, I just HAD to make that an even 2000. Now you'll have to work on THREE thousand.

[lovezebs]

Sojourner

Not a Chickadee, and not an Owl, and not a Diamond Sparrow either.

Here is a link to the Video.
You can first see this bird sitted on the bench, about three quarters of the way through the video. Then you can see him on the ground, around the blue water dish.

https://youtu.be/osWWpLF9Tyw

[Sojourner]

Ah, no wonder I couldn't ID the red and white bird with the red and black head!

He's in AUSTRALIA! It's a red capped robin.

So it COULD be an owl, since they're Australian, couldn't it?

Or wait ... do you already KNOW what that bird is and you are just making us DANCE FOR YOUR AMUSEMENT?

LOL!

*runs off to find a website about birds native to Australia*

[Sojourner]

OK so far I have identified ONE bird, the Splendid Fairy Wren. I see a bird very early in the video that looks like a juvenile male of either the variegated or splendid fairy wren or a female splendid, and much later in the video I see a male Splendid.

And the mystery bird looks LARGER than the Splendid fairy wren, while wikipedia says an owl finch would be SMALLER. The mystery bird seems to be about the size of a Java finch? I'm guessing...

Still working on it ...

EDIT: GOT IT! Finally! Got a good look at the beak. Definitely NOT a finch beak. Sharp, pointy, and a bit curved? Wish I didn't have to do this on a laptop, LOL!

[Sojourner]

GOT IT! SHE REIGNS VICTORIOUS!

At one point I was sure I saw it grab an insect, like a caterpillar or a grub, and eat it.

So insectivore, not honeyeater.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-fronted_chat



By JJ Harrison (jjharrison89@facebook.com) - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.p ... d=30114276

Do I win? Do I win?

[lovezebs]

Sojourner

I honestly don't know...

It might be, but the birdie in the video, has a blue-ish back, while this guy has a gray/brown back. It might be just the lighting, but not sure.....

Thanks for looking it up Sojourner

[Sojourner]

Yeah, that's just a trick of the light. In certain lights grey can look blue and blue can look grey. If you google "White Fronted Chat" in images category you can even see one pic where the brown looks very purplish, LOL!

Here is another pic that might help, this shows the white section of the tail which you can see in the video:



There also may very well be individual variation where the grey actually IS more of a blue. Or there may be related species that are difficult to tell apart, like the fairy wrens I identified first with the help of an article called "Fifty Shades of Brown", LOL!

That was fun. I also like that bird very very much. I wonder if its ever been domesticated? There are pics in the image category of chats perched on someone's finger. It's a very attractive bird - but being an insectivore, doubtless difficult to domesticate. Or perhaps more correctly, difficult to properly feed and care for.

[lovezebs]

Sojourner

If you want to see some real pretties, check out someTanagers....Oh so so beautiful.

And thanks for id-ing the birdie