The top 10 most beautiful Passerine birds in your opinion.

All of these sound like incredible experiences !

So you saw the same bowerbird as the one made famous by the BBC

 

Yes. The Greater BoPs were also at the “BBC” lek. Think the only reason I am not rating the three Paradisea species higher (Raggiana, Greater and Lesser) is that they are all equally spectacular, so difficult to choose between.

 

Yes, I totally agree, but I do also think that the smaller species are also very beautiful like the King bird of paradise that you have mentioned.

The Wilson's bird of paradise for example is both beautiful and bizarre and the ribbon tailed astrapia too with that beautiful metallic green plumage and those strange tail feathers.

 

Does this species exist? Do you mean the Blue-crowned laughingthrush or the Black-faced laughignthrush?

I think the correct spelling is actually Araripe

As for my top ten:

10. Wilson's BOP
9. Saffron-crowned tanager
8. Eastern bluebird
7. Siberian rubythroat
6. Raggiana BOP
5. Golden tanager
4. Golden-breasted starling
3. Flame bowerbird
2. Regent bowerbird
1. Masked bowerbird

Sorry for the high concentration of bowerbirds in the top 5, I just have a small obsession with Sericulus sp.

 

Ribbon-tailed Astrapia are also unbelievably easy, they come to the feeders at one of the lodges, together with Crested Berrypecker, Wattled Honeyeater and Belford’s Melidectes.

 

Don't worry

There are no wrong or right answers or a need to have something not on anyone elses list. It is simply a list of what passerines you find to be the most beautiful and bowerbirds and birds of paradise are indeed among the most birds.

There are a couple on here that haven't yet been mentioned by other posted so a few comments on these. I hadn't heard of the Siberian ruby throat before so just looked it up and it is a very striking looking little thrush and seeing it makes me curious to know what its song must sound like.

The tanagers you mentioned are very striking. Unfortunately due to them being from the Andes I haven't seen either species in the wild and haven't yet spotted any in captivity.

 

I often find with birds that it isn't just how beautiful their appearances are but how musical and endearing their common names are that greatly add to their appeal. I love for example that name the "wattled honey eater".

Seeing a picture of one on google images it seems to have that yellow wattle around the beak which looks almost like a stain / smear of honey as if it has been feeding from a pot of it (I have no idea if this played a part in why it was called that).

 

That wattle is fantastic, as it can “blush”; it can vary from yellow to deep orange, presumably by blood flow. The Honeyeater is the family name, most if not all are nectar feeders with brush tongues for lapping nectar; the Australasian ecological equivalent of hummingbirds.

 

Wilson’s BoP is only missing from the list as I haven’t seen it; it should have been a highlight of an August trip to Indonesia. Himalayan Rubythroat and Golden Tanager we’re both on my long list...

 

It just seems to be quite a suitable name for this bird given the normal yellow colour of the wattle that it should be called a honey eater.

Yes, I believe honeyeaters are a further example to add of convergent evolution between nectar feeding birds such as hummingbirds and sunbirds, right ?

 

Certainly, and add Hawaiian honeyeaters to that, as well as the extinct Oo.

 

Yes, most definitely, very said about the Oo considering its extinction was so comparatively recent.

 

Even sadder now that we realise it was a weird outlier of Waxwings, rather than a geographically isolated Honeyeater. I have seen far too many Oo feathers however on Polynesian feather cloaks.

 

Yes, certainly this overexploitation was what initiated its slide towards extinction and then it was further compounded by avian malaria, invasive species, habitat destruction and stochastic events.

A very sad indeed of extinction within historic memory.

 

Yes, thats right .

Araripe is indeed the correct spelling / name.

 

Thank you for your reply @Jurek7 !

So there are a couple here that haven't appeared on other lists, very interesting, many you list are Australasian or African species.

The Eastern spinebill is a beautiful and elegant looking bird, have you seen this in the wild or captivity?

The fire-tailed sunbird,what amazing colours it has ! I love the contrast of the vibrant reds and yellows in the plumage!

The paradise flycatcher is also a gorgeous species with that beautiful chestnut brown plumage, blue pigment around the eyes and strikingly long tail.

The splendid fairy wren seems to have made quite a few lists but I honestly can see why this is as that irridescent blue plumage is wonderful.

 

Ive seen Eastern spinebills in the wild, they are magnificent, I’ve only seen them twice, I got a brief view at Organ Pipes NP earlier in the year but last year I had an amazing first encounter with them in the Otway ranges on school camp, I’d been tracking this tiny bird with a long beak and I had absolutely no idea what it was and when I saw that bill and that plumage I finally realised what it was! Such charasmatic adorable little birds.


Yellow Wattlebird, Rufous Fantail, Pied Currawong, White Winged Fairy Wren, Purple Backed Fairy Wren and others

 

They are amazing looking birds aren't they ?

Their frontal plumage looks sort of like the colours of Capucchino coffee to me, just love it.

That is awesome that you had a personal encounter with this species in the wild, brilliant to hear, they seem to be quite a shy and cryptic looking bird was it difficult to follow them ?

 

They are shy for a Honeyeater but for a bird in general they are anything but shy. I would say more elusive and situational.

The school camp at the Otways in late 2019 was really good it reignited my passion for animals, I caught a couple waves in the surf remembering that stingrays are rare in Anglesea. Unfortunately I left early due to mental health reasons mainly due to the abundance of biting and stinging ants (Mymercia bull ants and Camptotonus Sugar ants), i went into anxietic shock after I saw not one but five Jack Jumpers in my tent while I was putting new shoes on.

I saw a plentiful amount of animals on that trip not limited to but including.

Mammals:
Eastern Grey Kangaroo
European Rabbit

Birds:
Rainbow Lorikeet (Anglesea only)
Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
Little Corella
Long Billed Corella
Silver Gull (Anglesea only)
House Sparrow (Anglesea only)
Little Eagle
Eastern Spinebill
New Holland Honeyeater
White Eared Honeyeater
Grey Currawong
White Necked Heron
Forest Raven
Eastern Yellow Robin
Brown Thornbill
Yellow Rumped Thornbill
Australian King Parrot
Crimson Rosella
Hardhead (Anglesea River)
Australian Wood Duck
Pacific Black Duck
Dusky Moorhen
Black Swan
Australian Swamphen
Eurasian Coot
Grey Teal
Chestnut Teal
Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoo

 

I can imagine ! the biting insects and arachnids of Australia are notorious everywhere around the world.

Honestly field work is difficult enough with things like ants, mosquitos, vipers, ticks, kissing bugs and scorpions but when you also have to be concerned about funnel web and redback spiders then it can really wear on the nerves.

That is a very impressive list of birds that you saw, was this over the course of days or weeks ?

I have to add that if I was Australian the only rabbit I would like to see would be one seen through the sight of a rifle with my finger resting on the trigger.