Monthly Archives: September 2016
Little Wattlebird plumage like shooting stars
This shy Little Wattlebird led me a merry dance before letting me snap a picture. It has an intricately patterned plumage. The little bursts at the end of each stripe remind me of shooting stars.
Common name: Little Wattlebird
Scientific name: Anthochaera chrysoptera
Approximate length: 30 cm
Date spotted: 25 September 2016
Season: Spring
Location: Manly Dam National Park, Sydney, Australia
Latitude/longitude: 33°46’30.7″S 151°15’09.1″E
Caterpillar nest high in a tree
Wandering through the bush looking at birds in my usual fashion, I saw this clump of something high in a tree. I zoomed in and took a photo. That’s when I discovered that the something is a web full of caterpillars! I’m deducing they’re caterpillars from the well-nibbled state of the nearby leaves.
Date spotted: 24 September 2016
Season: Spring
Location: Manly Dam, New South Wales, Australia
Latitude/longitude: 33°46’45.9″S 151°14’59.4″E
Noisy Miner chicks just out of their nest
All fluffy and chirpy, three little Noisy Miners have taken their first steps out of their nest.
My previous post showed the chicks being fed in the nest. Now, just four days later, they’re on a branch, bunched together, preening and demanding food. The adults are still very much in attendance.
This still shot shows a chick outlined in the early morning sun:
Here are the three chicks, looking fluffy and cute but with the characteristic gimlet glare of the Noisy Miner:
Common name: Noisy Miner, also called Australian Miner
Scientific name: Manorina melanocephala
Approximate length of adult bird: 26 cm
Date spotted: 17 September 2016
Season: Spring
Location: Allambie Heights, New South Wales, Australia
Latitude/longitude: 33°46’13.7″S 151°15’39.8″E
Noisy Miners feeding chicks in nest
Noisy Miners live up to their name. If they lived in California, Hitchcock would surely have used them as inspiration for The Birds. They cheep and squeak at everything in sight, and frequently attack everything in sight too. They’re also known as Australian Miners.
This nest has three chicks, cheeping continuously. The adult birds drop in to feed them every now and then. At one stage in the video, one of the chicks stretches up and flaps its wings. Getting ready for that first flight.
Interestingly, the adult birds feeding the chicks aren’t necessarily the parents. Other birds in a Miner colony often help to feed the babies. Noisy Miners are honeyeaters. They eat nectar, fruit and insects.
Common name: Noisy Miner, also called Australian Miner
Scientific name: Manorina melanocephala
Approximate length of adult bird: 26 cm
Date spotted: 13 September 2016
Season: Spring
Location: Allambie Heights, New South Wales, Australia
Latitude/longitude: 33°46’13.7″S 151°15’39.8″E
Why we plant native bushes and trees
One of the reasons we plant native bushes and trees in our garden is to provide food and shelter for the birds and animals. So that they’ll drop in and share this tiny patch of Australia with us. We see possums, lizards, bats, and birds of many kinds. Last week a wallaby passed through on its way from somewhere to somewhere else – but that’s most unusual, as ours really is a very small patch.
Rainbow lorikeets are frequent visitors, snacking on the nectar from the flowers. They’re noisy and quarrelsome, and very pretty.
The bush is a grevillia that we planted a couple of years ago, specifically to attract birds. It works!
Common name: Rainbow Lorikeet
Scientific name: Trichoglossus haematodus
Approximate length: 30 cm
Date spotted: 3 September 2016
Season: Spring
Sydney Birder 