Expert: Roger Lederer - 10/18/2007

Question
Hi,me and my nextdoor neighbour always take my dog sally for a walk to the park, and everytime we go there, threr's 2 birds and they have bayby chicks and we named them, but we wernt sure what breed they were or what gender they were so we named 1 alex and the other sam because there girl and boy names, i was wondering if you could help me find out what type of bird it is, it's black and white but not a magpie, it's small and a black short skiinny legs and hax a yellowy orange creemy beack type colour they would be found somewhere in victoria near melbour like in mooroolbark and churnside park and lilydale and croydon area so plz can you help? i sure hope you can thanks from Jazzy

Answer
Well, I'd like to help but that's not nearly enough information to make a positive identification. How small is it? How many inches? Where is the black and where is the white coloration. What is it doing - walking on the ground or in a tree or? Are the baby chicks in a nest or walking on the ground? How do they behave? Hop, run, fly, wag their tails? A photo, even a bad one, would help. My wild guess is that it is a wagtail as it fits your description, but it's just a guess.