| Case Summary for:
Submission No 370: Blue-and-white Flycatcher Cyanoptila cyanomelana
Broome Bird Observatory, WA 15th to 19th November 2002 (Unpublished).
Submitted by Dan Blunt, Adrian Boyle, Chris Hassell and Frank O'Connor. Verdict: Accepted On the 15th November 2002 a Blue and White Flycatcher Cyanoptila cyanomelana was seen at Broome Bird Observatory (17o59'S 120o22' E) 13 kilometres east of Broome. The bird was seen on the following four days in the same area feeding on the berries of the Native Willow Ehretia saligna and green caterpillars. The last sighting was at 1545hrs on the 19th November 2002. A thorough submission has been provided to the committee outlining the circumstances of the sighting, which was compiled from field identification notes from A. Boyle, C. Hassell and F. O'Connor, a sketch by D. Blunt and digital photos by A. Boyle. The content clearly describes an adult male Blue-and-white Flycatcher (females are brown) being bright blue-black and white in colour, very robust and similar in size to Restless Flycatcher Myiagra inquieta but more robust and shorter tailed. The committee agreed with the observers that the only 'confusion' species is White-tailed Flycatcher Cyornis concretus. But this species was quickly eliminated by the lack of any white in the tail. There are two races of Blue-and-white Flycatcher, the nominate race cyanomelana and cumatilis. The plumage pattern in both races is the same but the colour is different. The nominate race is azure to cobalt blue (with blackish sides) on the head and a nearly black throat and breast. Cumatilis is turquoise especially on the crown and tail but has bluer, tending to turquoise sides of the head, throat and breast. The Broome bird was considered by the authors of the submission to be cyanomelana based on the deep blue 'cobalt' upper-parts and black around the face, throat and breast. Committee members were quick to accept the identification as an adult
male of the nominate race cyanomelana. Provenance is doubtless
the result of overshooting the usual wintering areas just north of Australia,
although ship assistance could not be ruled out completely. The only other
record of Blue-and-white Flycatcher in Australia was of a dead, beach-washed,
adult male (also of the race cyanomelana), now a specimen in the
Western Australian Museum (registered number A26021) found by Grant and
Clare Morton on the 5th December 1995 near Cossack in Western Australia
(BARC Case No.242, Palliser 1999).
· MacKinnon, J. & Phillipps, K. 1994. A Field Guide to
the Birds of Borneo, Sumatra, Java and Bali. Oxford University Press,
Oxford. Tony Palliser
|