On the morning of 10 January I heard a strange call n the garden. I can best transliterate it as "drrit, drittt" repeated quite a few times. On going to investigate I found it to be a male Red-capped Robin.
Not all great art, but they do give an idea of how beautiful this bird is. (I have a personal view that it is not possible to have too many views or images of Red-capped Robins.)
Later in the day a second bird with much less colour (more a reddish brown tinge on forehead and breast) was also present. I would take a punt on it being an immature male: the red on the forehead wasn't clear enough to suggest an adult female.
There are two previous records in the area, from May and June 2010.
This is another inland species doubtless driven this way by appalling weather.
My May 2014 the weather has improved, at least to the point of having decent rainfall. However a Red-capped Robin is still in the area. However it has been residing at a property on Hoskinstown Plain. Image by Leone.
Lovely birds, Martin.
ReplyDeleteYour transcription of the call is very accurate.
Not obvious, but the call does travel quite well. 50 metres easy.
Denis
Thanks Denis. I am always worried about trying to put calls into alpha characters having read something by (I think) Bill Oddie reporting the weird ways some calls have been dealt with!
ReplyDeleteMartin
How lovely. I agree you cannot have too many views (never seen them myself). Megan
ReplyDeleteThanks Megan. You may get lucky if they are in the area: note Denis' comment about the carrying qualities of the call..
DeleteMartin
They are such a beautiful bird! you are very lucky to see them.
ReplyDeleteThanks Judith. Even better the male at least hung around for about 4 weeks (but now seems to have vanished: presumably he - unlike us - didn't like the rain).
DeleteMartin