Comments on: What kind of bird was this unfortunate creature which was killed by my cat? Green/olive feathers with a white/black spotted breast.

Question: What kind of bird was this unfortunate creature which was killed by my cat? Green/olive feathers with a white/black spotted breast.

h00py — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:44:17 -0800

My cat killed a bird which I was unable to identify and I'm wondering what it was. It had a greenish/olivish tinge to its feathers but its breast and underside was white with black spots. Its beak was similar to a doves.

This poor bird somehow managed to find its way onto my balcony at night so my initial thought was that it was a nocturnal bird that somehow got lost, but it didn't really look anything like what I've always imagined night birds to look like (my knowledge of such is Extremely Limited) so I'm thinking that perhaps it wasn't a night bird, it was a day bird of some kind which just, very unluckily, fell out of its night time perch and ended up on my balcony where my incredibly quick cat decided to leap upon it and kill before I had a chance to do anything! I'm in Ipswich, Queensland, Australia. I've done a quick google search for birds but alas, my google searching skills are pathetic and I wasn't able to narrow my search down far enough to get any meaningful results. If anyone could help, it would be appreciated.

By: b33j

b33j — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:01:49 -0800

Perhaps a noisy miner?

By: b33j

b33j — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:09:27 -0800

Or an olive-backed oriole

Both of these birds are likely to be in Ipswich, though I've not identified the oriole here.

By: b33j

b33j — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:19:04 -0800

And then there's a shining bronze-cuckoo.

There's a really excellent website for identifying Australian birds, but it's currently down at the moment. I'm using Pizzey & Knight's book, The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia.

By: mattoxic

mattoxic — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:55:13 -0800

Yellow around the beak?

By: h00py

h00py — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 07:14:45 -0800

The olive-backed oriole looks like the one that met its unfortunate demise at my house. Thanks, b33j.