On the hop

This rather drab looking little bird is a grey shrike-thrush, and has had me on the hop for weeks and weeks.

You hardly ever see them, but their loud and melodious call is heard in many places. I only got this one because I happened to see his flight, and got a bead on the branch where he was sitting high above. Wrong lens of course, but if the lens has to be wrong, then it had better be the 100 mm.

And it's another new one for the List.

Birds in Backyards says:

The Grey Shrike-thrush (Colluricincla harmonica) is a rather drab coloured bird, although the plumage varies throughout its extensive range. Birds are mostly grey in the east, with an olive-grey back, and pale grey-white cheeks and underparts. In the north, the plumage is predominantly brown, and western birds are grey with buff underparts. Adult males are browner on the mantle than the female and young birds have varying amounts of rufous on the cheeks and wings.

Grey Shrike-thrush pairs mate for life and maintain breeding territories of up to 10 hectares.

Calls
The Grey Shrike-thrush has a varied, rich and melodious voice. The call varies throughout its range and between individuals, but typical phrases include "pip-pip-pip--pip-hoee", "pur-pur-pur-kwee-yew", and a sharp "yorrick".
(No way can you work out what it sounds like from this description!!)

According to Wikipedia

The Grey Shrike-thrush or Grey Shrike-thrush (Colluricincla harmonica), formerly commonly known as Grey Thrush, is one of the best-loved and most distinctive songbirds of Australasia. It is moderately common to common in most parts of Australia, but absent from the driest of the inland deserts. It is also found in New Guinea.

Of medium size (about 24 cm (9 in) long) and lacking bright colours, the Grey Shrike-thrush—usually just thrush in casual conversation—has an extraordinary gift for ringing melody, unmatched by any other Australasian species save perhaps the two lyrebirds and its northern relative, the Sandstone Shrike-thrush.

I meant to say: last night just as we were putting up our blips, we had a power outage. It only lasted for a couple of seconds, but the surge wrecked my monitor, and it took a while to get it sorted out. Its ok now, but I think the power supply had a haemorrhage! So that's why there were no comments last night. I know, I know - I'm going to run out of excuses soon :)))