Category Archives: Birds
Little Corella sipping water from roof guttering
From a distance, Little Corellas look very similar to Sulphur-crested Cockatoos. It’s only when you get up close that you notice the differences. Corellas do have a crest on their heads, but it’s smaller than that of their sulphur-crested cousins and doesn’t have a yellow flare.
Up until a few months ago, it was unusual to see these birds in our neighbourhood on the east coast of Australia, but I’ve seen them three or four times recently. I filmed this one sipping water from the gutter on the roof of a house:
Little Corellas have big, rubbery-looking blue patches around and under their eyes. The first time I saw one of these birds, for a couple of seconds I thought it was a very sick Sulphur-crested Cockatoo!
Often the crests on their heads are laid flat, as in the above photo. Here’s one with a raised crest, giving it that typically cheeky cockatoo look:
I’m delighted to add this bird to my posts about the various types of cockatoo that I’ve seen in our neighbourhood.
Common name: Little Corella
Scientific name: Cacatua sanguinea
Approximate length: 36-39 cm
Date spotted: 26 May 2019 (Autumn)
Location: Allambie Heights near Sydney, Australia
Crested Tern chilling out in Curl Curl
Amongst the wheeling Silver Gulls, joggers, and fishermen, a Crested Tern stood gazing over the rocks and sea.
I was walking along the cliff path when I passed the bird. Fifteen minutes later I was on my way back. The bird was still there. This picture shows the crest from which the bird’s name comes:
Crested Terns are a common sight around the shores of Australia. You may see them sitting on the sand with the gulls, or darting over the waves and diving to catch a fish. These are the seas and cliffs of Curl Curl where the bird and I were chilling out:
Common name: Crested Tern
Scientific name: Sterna bergii
Approximate length: 45 cm
Date spotted: 22 April 2019 (Autumn)
Location: Curl Curl, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’36.9″S 151°17’36.8″E
Little Black Cormorant catching the sun
I went for a late afternoon walk near Spit Bridge today, and saw this Little Black Cormorant catching the last of the sun:
In the next photo you can see the bird’s webbed feet nicely. Cormorants are very fast and agile under water, where they catch their prey. Their feathers are not waterproof, which is why they spend so much time with their wings spread out to dry.
Common name: Little Black Cormorant (see other cormorants)
Scientific name: Phalacrocorax sulcirostris
Approximate length: 65 cm
Date spotted: 20 April 2019 (Autumn)
Location: Near Middle Harbour, Clontarf, New South Wales, Australia: 33°48’07.8″S 151°15’00.2″E
Wattlebirds’ tree bath
I’ve seen various birds dive through the treetops to clean their feathers. From the small New Holland Honeyeaters to the much larger King Parrots., they do it in the early morning to catch the dew, or after a rainfall. Today I managed to catch a couple of Wattlebirds performing their ablutions:
Common name: Little Wattlebird (see more pics of this bird)
Scientific name: Anthochaera chrysoptera
Approximate length: 30 cm
Date spotted: 20 April 2019 (Autumn)
Location: Manly Dam National Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’16.5″S 151°14’53.5″E
Moody magpie on the Manly to Spit Bridge walk
Today I walked a small part of the trail that runs from Manly to Spit Bridge, on the east coast of Australia near Sydney. It was a lovely calm morning, early enough to avoid the late-autumn heat promised for the rest of the day. I came across a magpie perched on a tree. The early morning light combined with a recent burn in the area make for a nice moody, naturally monochrome shot:
Common name: Australian Magpie
Scientific name: Gymnorhina tibicen
Approximate length: 40 cm
Date spotted: 24 March 2019 (late summer)
Location: Reef Beach Track, Balgowlah Heights, near Sydney: 33°48’29.7″S 151°16’27.4″E
Just a few minutes’ walk further along the track, I saw this magnificent view. The front stretch of water is part of Sydney Harbour. In the distance is Manly wharf. The thin strip of land is Manly town centre, with the Pacific Ocean in the distance beyond the town:
I wonder if the magpie was enjoying the view as much as I did.
Wakeful Southern Boobook at Manly Dam
A little Southern Boobook was wide awake when I walked beneath its tree this morning. This is the first time I’ve seen one of these owls, though I’ve heard them hoot during the night hours.
I sat down on the ground and watched the bird for a while. It wasn’t disturbed by my presence, and grew quite sleepy, as you can see in the next video. At the end of the video I zoomed out so that you can see a bit of the bush surrounding the bird:
Southern Boobooks are quite small, at around 30cm in length from head to tail. Compare that to the Powerful Owl, which is around 65cm.
Here’s a still photo of the bird, showing a deep yellow eye and fluffy white feathers above its beak:
Southern Boobooks are quite common. They feed mostly on insects and spiders, but they do take the occasional small bird or animal too. Here’s a closeup of the owl’s face:
Common name: Southern Boobook
Scientific name: Ninox novaeseelandiae
Approximate length: 30cm
Date spotted: 20 March 2019 (late summer)
Location: Manly Dam National Reserve, near Sydney: 33°46’30.0″S 151°15’09.2″E
Cockatoos cleaning out a tree hollow
Two Sulphur-crested Cockatoos were very busy cleaning out a hollow in a tree trunk when I walked past them today. The tree is in Manly Dam National Park. I often see cockatoos strutting up and down this tree trunk, raising their crests and squawking, and flying from tree to tree. The area is where they hang out. It’s a cockatoo playground.
In this video, one of the cockatoos gets into the cleaning in a big way, disappearing into the hollow and kicking out chunks of debris. The other cockatoo watches from above, then goes down to join the fun:
It seems an odd time of year to be preparing to build a nest. I’ve seen a few swarms of bees in this particular hollow from time to time over the years. I wonder if the cockatoos are looking for left over honeycomb?
Common name: Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
Scientific name: Cacatua galerita
Approximate length: 50 cm
Date spotted: 10 March 2019 (late summer)
Location: Manly Dam National Reserve, near Sydney: 33°46’50.5″S 151°14’51.1″E
Bird on a wire – Eastern Rosella pays a call
This pretty little parrot perched on an electric cable outside my window. Eastern Rosellas don’t come round often, so it’s a treat to see one.
At 30 cm in length, Eastern Rosellas are larger than the Rainbow Lorikeets and slightly smaller than the Crimson Rosellas that we see often in our area.
In the video below, you see the bird flicking its foot rapidly near its face, as if scratching an itch. I’ve seen them do this often, usually accompanied by calling and by fluffing their feathers. I think its more of a display dance than a remedy for an itch!
Common name: Eastern Rosella
Scientific name: Platycercus eximius
Approximate length: 30 cm
Date spotted: 2 March 2019 (late summer)
Location: Allambie Heights, NSW, Australia
Juvenile kookaburra fancies hibiscus flower
This is a juvenile kookaburra that came across a hibiscus flower in my garden. Hibiscus is not native to Australia, so this big pink flower is not something kookaburras encounter often. Still, this youngster decided to carry the flower around for a while, because, hey, it was in his world.
Powerful Owl pellet, also known as owl vomit or regurgitation
This morning I came across this weird-looking bundle of hair and stuff in the bush surrounding Manly Dam National Park near Sydney:
Date spotted: 20 January 2019 (Summer)
Location: Manly Dam National Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’24.5″S 151°15’04.4″E
At first I thought it was some weird creature, but it had no visible eyes and didn’t really look alive, although it was obviously animal in nature. I picked up a stick and turned the object over gently. It didn’t try to move away. Definitely not alive. It looked the same on both sides. No obvious undercarriage.
So then I thought, maybe it’s some dead creature that’s become covered in a thick fungus. It’s summer here in Sydney—hot, humid, lots of fungus on the trees and mould on animal poo in the forest. In fact, I’ve seen animal poo that’s completely white and fuzzy, with long tendrils of mould standing up straight.
Still, the fungus idea didn’t quite fit the bill. The stuff covering this object looked more like fur than fungus.
So I took a photo and moved on.
When I got home and showed my husband the photo of this weird thing I’d seen, he suggested it might be owl’s vomit. They do that, he said. They regurgitate fur and stuff. So I looked it up. Indeed they do.
The official name for owl vomit is owl pellet. I think this one must be from a Powerful Owl (Ninox strenua), because I’ve seen those birds in the same area of the bush before, and because this pellet was big. It was around 6 inches long (15 cm) and 2 inches (5 cm) at its widest.
Here’s a Powerful Owl that I saw a while ago, also at Manly Dam. This owl has its prey (a dead possum) in its grip:
An owl’s pellet consists of fur, bones, and other bits and pieces of its prey that the owl can’t digest. An owl needs to regurgitate a pellet once or twice every night, six hours or more after the owl has eaten.
If you like, you can see more about the Powerful Owls I’ve seen around Manly Dam.
Sydney Birder 