A bird question my grandson asked

Hi Wilko

I am unsre which bird it is, but the Weebill seems to have the title of Ausatralia's smallest bird.

Cheers

Marc/Peter,

'Australian Birds - A Concise Photographic Field Guide' - D & M Trounson
also says that the Weebill (Smicrornis brevirostris) is the smallest bird in Australia at 8cm.

'Readers Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds' also confirms this as does Neville W. Cayley's 'What Birds is That'

Hi Peter & Richard

Thanks so much for that information.

Cheers

Hi Mick

I saw the Weebill on Google, but have been told there is a smaller bird, so I figured the mass of knowledge on EO would verify this one way or the other.

Cheers

hi
i thought it was the 'warethefokrwee' bird as no one has ever been able to measure it lol
sorry but could'nt resist
cheers

Hi Mazcan

Thankyou, I actually wrote that one down and tried to Google it, then realised what it was saying, gave me a bit of a laugh.

Actually I am surprised that none of the orinthologists have seen this bird personally yet, my Google is still not finding it.

Cheers

hi marc
yes it's commonly known as the ''lost bird'' it has never been caught but has caught a lot of travellers out including me

and has only been measured by amount of frustration and /or geographical confusion
cheers

Hi Maxcan

I was actually taslking about the Weebill, but there you go, I should have been more specific.

Cheers

Hi Stephen

Thanks for that information, it seems strange that the smallest bird in Australia would be only from the Gibb River area. With all the species over east, I would have thought there would have been something over there.

Cheers

Hi Marc and others,

The Weebill is found in every state in Oz, plenty here in Vic. Another really small bird is the Scrubtit, now no sniggering and innuendos ok! I'm a birder and when I travel north I always tell my mates that I saw a nice pair of Brown Boobies when I was away. My birder mates understand but all the others just call me sick! Ha! It's the Brownbreastedmattressthrasher that I look for but so far haven't seen!!

Regards from Col.

Hi Colin

The names of the birds do not surprise me at all. It seems my grandson is doing some bird course at school, or some kind of project for school, and some of the names that he has shown me have raised my eyebrows more than once.

Cheers

I believe the Emu is the tallest, but the Cassowary is the heaviest, so which is the bigger? Good argument for a carton and a camp fire. And a good lesson in semantics for the grandson.

Hi Porl

Fair point and well raised.

Cheers

Hi Joe n Mel n Kids

Nope, I think the mozzie is related to the vampire bats.

Cheers