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Post by donsausa on Oct 14, 2010 10:35:45 GMT
 Gerry Brett stopped by in Bacolod and we did a sortie near Mt. Kanlaon National Park just right above Mambukal Mountain Resort. Both of us identified this bird as an "Olive-Backed Sunbird" when we saw it. Upon closer inspection, it seems to be the aurora sub-species that is typically found in Palawan. This is a documentary shot, apologies for not having a better close-up. Second opinion anyone? |
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Post by des on Oct 14, 2010 14:01:39 GMT
Just because it looks like the pic of aurora in the book does not actually mean it is aurora. The origin of the orange genes for the breast may be from Palawan, but the Negros birds probably differ in other ways
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Post by steve pryor on Oct 14, 2010 14:08:05 GMT
Des,
One of the ways it differs is in the extension of the iridescent malars onto the lower ear coverts. Would love to see a full side-on view of the head. Further, I forget which of the several pigment systems we might be dealing with for the yellow to orange ventrally, but it may be simply a question of increased penetrance in an individual bird. Intuitively, I might think of this latter possibility rather than the more unlikely finding an aurora on Negros, but anything is possible.
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Post by donsausa on Oct 14, 2010 14:22:30 GMT
I'll try to find this group again and bring longer lenses with me. I have only seen this in the Kanlaon area.
The male olive backed sunbirds just a few km away in the urban areas (e.g. Bacolod), I have not observed them to have the orange genes. There's quite a number of them near my 2nd floor office window (they drink from the cut palm flower -- tuba!).
I'll post it back on this thread if I find anymore of these aurora-like looking birds.
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Post by des on Oct 14, 2010 18:13:56 GMT
I feel sure this topic has been discussed before sometime. I have seen birds on Cebu with some orange on the breast too.
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Post by donsausa on Oct 15, 2010 14:16:15 GMT
I feel sure this topic has been discussed before sometime. I have seen birds on Cebu with some orange on the breast too. Interesting! Those that you have observed wouldn't be classified as aurora either? I thought the visual cue to identify this particular subspecies was the orange band? The islands of Negros and Cebu are close enough to me in terms of range. Thanks ahead of time for taking my questions. -Don |
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Post by donsausa on Oct 17, 2010 3:41:10 GMT
I'm correcting myself, saw them more widespread than Kanlaon. One group came over to my house with some orange genes:  |
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