Mystery Bird photographed at New South Wales, Australia. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Marie-Louise Ng, 24 December 2011 (with permission) [velociraptorize].
Nikon D7000.
This striking Australian mystery bird is part of a taxon that has several avian ecological equivalents in other parts of the world. Can you identify this distinctive species and its taxonomic family, and tell me which other avian groups perform similar ecological functions?
About the Daily Mystery Bird:
The Rules:
1. Keep in mind that people live in zillions of different time zones around the globe, and some people are following on their mobile phones. So let everyone play the game. Wait to identify the bird until 24 to 36 hours after it's been published.
2. If you know the bird's identity, provide subtle hints to let others know that you know. Your hints may be helpful as small clues to less experienced players.
3. Describe the key field marks that distinguish this species from any similar ones.
4. Comments that spoil others' enjoyment may be deleted.
The Game:
1. This is meant to be a learning experience where together we learn a few things about birds and about the process of identifying them (and maybe about ourselves, too).
2. Each mystery bird is usually accompanied by a question or two. These questions can be useful for identifying the pictured species, but may instead be used to illustrate an interesting aspect of avian biology, behaviour or evolution, or may be intended to generate conversation on other topics, such as conservation or ethics.
3. Thoughtful comments will add to everyone's enjoyment, and will keep the suspense going until the next teaser is published. Interesting snippets may add to the knowledge of all.
4. Each bird species will be demystified approximately 48 hours after publication.
You are invited to review all of the daily mystery birds by going to their dedicated graphic index page.
If you have bird images, video or mp3 files that you'd like to share with a large and (mostly) appreciative international audience here at The Guardian, feel free to contact me to learn more.
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Comments
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5 January 2012 4:51PM
"Insensible Plater", originally described as a type of tree-creeper.
Convergent on members of several other groups, such as Drepanididae, Nectarinidae, Promeropidae, Melanocharitidae, Mohoidae and, in terms of bill shape & feeding ecology, Trochilidae.
5 January 2012 4:52PM
Liberal ineptness.
5 January 2012 5:09PM
I thought this was 'Mystery Bird', but I must be mistaken as it seems to be a political comment blog :D
(nice one TwitchEd, although I haven't ID'd this bird yet, although I did get 37 UK species today).
5 January 2012 5:24PM
Nice one, indeed!
Brilliant pensees.
5 January 2012 5:55PM
Isn't it political? Oh dear. I seemed to have posted my right-wing views on the wrong page...
37 is very good for a day in January. I never get out of bed for less than 30!
5 January 2012 6:41PM
East or west, Australia's birds are best. I've seen the occidental one of these, but this one eluded me. Grrl, keep meaning to send you some Oz bird pics - they might not be up this standard though.
5 January 2012 6:48PM
Wow. As I was working on something like "siren (call) o' trust" I saw your work and am abashed.
5 January 2012 8:19PM
What about 2000+ of the same? I'm trying to do a head-count on a frame from today. It wasn't the whole flock, but I reckon there are >1000 of one species in the frame.
5 January 2012 9:21PM
Wow. What species was that?
5 January 2012 10:03PM
Won't say :P. One of today's shots is currently with GrrlScientist for consideration. Suffice to say that the shot presented to GrrlS is of a lesser count (probably about 250-300), otherwise the dots get too small to have a good hope of IDing; anyone who has seen them before shouldn't have trouble. I will say that it took me a l-o-n-g time to find/ID the white-fronted goose that was mixed up with canadas, and I missed out on the barnacle, both of which were outside their generally accepted range (and also out of accepted camera range! Like most of the birds today - LOL).
Roy.
7 January 2012 1:02PM
you can still send them to me. not all the pictures i publish here have to be breathtaking and easy to identify. i actually like to publish some pics to give you all something to chew over, just to keep you humble, errrr ... challenged.
7 January 2012 10:57PM
thanks everyone for your comments and discussion.
this mystery bird has been demystified here (includes video).