Can you identify this bird?

[Kim Fretwell]

We have today visited Hoe Rough, a Norfolk Wildlife Trust Reserve and saw a bird we are having trouble identifying.
A photo is attached, I think, but for anyone who can't view it, the bird had a white chest, white head apart from a black band around the eyes and black wings. The beak was similiar to a woodpeckers but as far as we can tell it is not a woodpecker. It was quiet plump and about the size of a pigeon.
Hope to hear from anyone who has more information than we do!
Regards
Kim

[John]

Originally Posted by Kim Fretwell

We have today visited Hoe Rough, a Norfolk Wildlife Trust Reserve and saw a bird we are having trouble identifying.
A photo is attached, I think, but for anyone who can't view it, the bird had a white chest, white head apart from a black band around the eyes and black wings. The beak was similiar to a woodpeckers but as far as we can tell it is not a woodpecker. It was quiet plump and about the size of a pigeon.
Hope to hear from anyone who has more information than we do!
Regards
Kim

This is a Kookaburra and is obviously an escapee. You had me going there for a moment.

Still I would like you to tell me if it was free flying or if it was a captive bird

Here is a link to a photograph of one.

http://uk.search.yahoo.com/search/im...fp-tab-web-t-1

[Kim Fretwell]

Hi there.
Thank you so much for your reply. We have been looking on the internet for most of the afternoon trying to find out what it was.
We are not bird watchers and are only used to the usual common birds in our garden. As far as we know, it is not a captive bird and when we originally saw it sitting in the tree thought it was a woodpecker.
I hope we don't start a rush to Norfolk now!! We didn't realise it was rare and were just enjoying a stroll in the Norfolk countryside!
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Kim
PS. We've now had a look at pictures of the belted kingfisher on the internet and they all seem to have a black head, whereas the bird we saw this morning had a white head, with a band of black around it's eyes and a black stripe from it's beak to the back of it's head, joining the band.

[Kim Fretwell]

Hi
The bird was free flying, in a wooded area on the edge of heathland near a river and paused for several minutes on one tree then another before flying off in to a denser wooded area. The bird certainly looks very much like a Kookaburra.
Thank you for identifying this for us.
Regards,
kim

[John]

Originally Posted by Kim Fretwell

Hi
The bird was free flying, in a wooded area on the edge of heathland near a river and paused for several minutes on one tree then another before flying off in to a denser wooded area. The bird certainly looks very much like a Kookaburra.
Thank you for identifying this for us.
Regards,
kim

Cheers Kim

I edited out all of my original reply as within miuntes I realised what the bird was.

Where actually is this reserve. I know Norfolk well but have never heard of this one.

[John]

As a follow on to this. Kim & I PM'd each other and I followed it through by asking a few Norfolk contacts if they had heard of this bird. They hadn't. My next call was to Rare Bird Alert but they hadn't heard about it either. I asked Kim for permission to send the photo to RBA, which she agreed, and a message was put out on the pager service last night regarding this bird. At 15:40 this afternoon the first report went onto the pager that the bird had been seen, as well as a Yellow Browed Warbler, at this site.

Apparently Kim had been in touch with the RSPB who knew all about this bird. Strange that they knew yet the local top birders knew nothing.

It is a definite escapee but is well worth going to see if you are in that area. I know I will try and find it when I am on my weeks holiday next week. If I do find it, and get a photo, I will post it on this thread.

[henrya]

At the risk of raising Helen's blood pressure, perhaps it's not an escapee but a chuck-out from someone scared of bird-flu. (Sorry Helen - breathe deeply)

henrya

[John]

Originally Posted by henrya

At the risk of raising Helen's blood pressure, perhaps it's not an escapee but a chuck-out from someone scared of bird-flu. (Sorry Helen - breathe deeply)

henrya

Don't think so as the RSPB apparently have known about this bird for some time.

[Helen]

LOL @ henrya!

This was the only bird I remembered seeing when in Australia during my "non-birder" days. So it is one I would have recognised straight away - for a change!!