GAME: name that bird!

[Soukous]

how about an Asian Fairy Bluebird @Dave Williams

[Dave Williams]

@Soukous Afraid not! 

[Soukous]

Just now, Dave Williams said:

@Soukous Afraid not! 

 

I feared not. Not enough blue. 

 

[inyathi]

@Dave Williams

 

This is undoubtedly a whistling thrush and I’m confident that I have seen this bird in Kerala in the south of India a couple of times and it is the Malabar whistling thrush.

 

The main give away is the bill, the other Indian species is the blue and it has a bright yellow bill as does the Malayan found further east, the Sri Lankan is much too small. I’m not sure about the other 5 whistling thrushes listed on Wikipedia that I’ve never seen.

[Dave Williams]

Spot on @inyathi  Also known as the Whistling Schoolboy and here's why! I love the fact that someone is whispering while possibly the other person is trying to record the song! Usually happens to me but with machine gun shutter sounds going off!

 

[inyathi]

OK lets not move too far from the last one and go for another blue bird.

 

 

[Dave Williams]

@inyathi I think perhaps too much of a clue as I immediately reached for the Indian Guide book. Never seen this one as I haven't been that far north in India but it looks a dead ringer for Small Niltava, a male.

[inyathi]

@Dave Williams Good guess but no, it’s not a small niltava. 

 

Although I said let’s not move too far, you need to go just slightly further than that, I wasn’t in India, this isn’t an Indian bird but I did have to check its distribution map online to confirm this. I will try to think of some other clues later if no one else has a guess.

[Geoff]

Oh good, I see this game is going again....

 

Umm, a guess ~ Dull-blue flycatcher

[inyathi]

@Geoff You're on the right track but this is not a Sri Lankan bird, you need to go a bit further and hop over the Andaman Sea, other than that I will say that it is a blue flycatcher. 

[Soukous]

Tickell's blue flycatcher?

[inyathi]

@Soukous Another reasonable guess but no it's not Tickell's, this species is named after an island though one that is part of a country that I have yet to visit. 

[offshorebirder]

@inyathi - is it a Bornean Blue Flycatcher?    

 

That seems to be where your clues are pointing, but it doesn't have the dark mask contrasting with pale throat and rosy/buff breast that I would expect from that species.

 

[inyathi]

@offshorebirder No not that one either, although it is named after an island because I presume the type specimen was collected there, it does in fact have quite a substantial mainland distribution, so from Borneo you need to cross over the South China Sea, you could stop off there, but I took this particular photo in Khao Yai NP in Thailand.

[Geoff]

Hainan Blue flycatcher

[inyathi]

@Geoff Yes Hainan blue flycatcher 

 

Over to you.

[Geoff]

A tricky one @inyathi  but your last clue made it too easy.

[Geoff]

I'm hoping this bird won't be too hard...  

[michael-ibk]

Flesh-Footed Shearwater?

[Geoff]

@michael-ibk  No Michael.

[lmSA84]

@Geoff

 

Wedge-tailed Shearwater 

[lmSA84]

@Geoff

 

Wedge-tailed Shearwater 

[Geoff]

No @lmSA84 It's not a shearwater species. 

[kittykat23uk]

Black Petrel?

[Geoff]

@kittykat23uk  Nope, but at least you're on the right track.