I found a fly-type insect crawling on my bird, what was it?

This looked like a flat fly, it had wings and 6 legs. It was black in colour and around the length and width of a regular house fly. I found it crawling on my white dove and when I first saw it I thought it was a spider. It would crawl under her feathers and wasn’t afraid to sit on her back in plain view. After we removed it from her (which was quite difficult as it hid under her feathers) it ‘flew’ which was more like a jump and disappeared. Also, I live in Queensland, Australia if that helps.

Sounds like a typical flat fly. Need to get it out of house or will end up right back on her. They move swiftly from side to side through the birds feather and will feed on her blood. Usually do not much harm but not something you want on her. Best to get off and let out or kill it. Flat flies are a type of (feather lice). Not contagious to us or other pets.

Philippines, Palawan, Honda Bay Dive, …Sea Spider?

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