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Golden Whistler |
Sightings
Golden Whistlers are much less common west of the dividing range than they are in the east. They are also more uncommon than Rufous Whistlers.
After a first sighting at our former neighbour's property, 20 km south of Narrabri, New South Wales in 2003, it took us 3 years and a trip to the east coast to see another Golden Whistler, in May of 2006 in the Royal National Park, south of Sydney.
Since then, there have been several, but infrequent sightings in the Narrabri area, in bushland 30 km north of town, then 25 km west of town (i.e., out in the plains towards Wee Waa) during 2007 and 2008.
The area where we now find them most reliably is a part of Mt. Kaputar National Park, 30 km east of Narrabri. There we succeeded to positively identify female birds when observing pairs foraging through cyprus pine bushland together. Several pairs were observed in this area in July/August 2008.
Photos
Frontal view of a hunched male Golden Whistler, with its head partly obscured by a spider's web (click on image for larger version)
Slightly more distant view, but now the head is not obscured
Back of a male Golden Whistler
Male Golden Whistler 30 km north of Narrabri, New South Wales (in bad light) launching itself from its perch
Frontal view of a hunched female Golden Whistler; an excact identification of the bird is very difficult (click on image for larger version)
Nearly frontal view of a female Golden Whistler; note how difficult it still is to identify the bird correctly from this angle (click on image for larger version)
Lateral view of a female Golden Whistler (click on image for larger version); now the pale yellow undertail coverlets are clearly visible, making the identification easy
Rear view of a female Golden Whistler from underneath, showing the characteristic pale yellow undertail coverts
Rear view of a female Golden Whistler from above, an angle at which the bird is extremely difficult to discern from a female Rufous Whistler and also some robins