After a boozy lunch at Karu Distillery with a good friend (where I focused so much on the award-winning chipotle vodka that I couldn’t focus on the birds), Bramanda visited our friend’s beautiful Bowen Mountain hideaway, where some lovely birds graced us with their presence.
The Pied Currawongs (Strepera graculina) were very sociable:
The light was fading fast (it had been a longish lunch!), but some members of the Columbidae family (Pigeons and Doves) that we had not previously photographed turned up to forage. This is a Wonga Pigeon (Leucosarcia melanoleuca)
One of the Currawongs needed some late-afternoon hydration:
Then, a pretty bird we did not recognize at the time, but which we’ve since identified as the Brown Cuckoo-Dove (Macropygia phaisanella)
We are not sure if this guy is a Common Bronzewing, or a Brush Bronzewing (Phaps elegans). I’m leaning towards it being a Brush Bronzewing, due to the particularly rufous forehead, and the fact that in our bird guide, the wing iridescence is painted more brightly, like this guy here. May just be a trick of the light though:
And there were also some very attractive domesticated birds in our friend’s garden as well:
But the stars of the show were the Brown Cuckoo-Doves. Though they have a reputation of being difficult to spot in the forest, they posed quite happily for us.
Bramandagram 