Blog Archives
Superb Fairy-wren and Yellow Thornbill in a puddle
A couple of weeks ago, I was at Marrambidya Wetland near Wagga Wagga, NSW. A couple of Superb Fairy-wrens were sharing a puddle with some Yellow Thornbills. I managed to photograph one of each bird, but not all together.
First a Superb Fairy-wren:
The croaking noise in the background is a Darter. (You can see and hear one in this post.)
These birds are quick and bright, with their clearly-delineated blocks of blue, black, and white. Here’s a still shot:
Yellow Thornbills aren’t nearly as showy! Here’s one taking his or her turn in the puddle:
They’re tiny birds, with olive backs, a buff-coloured chest, and striations around the eyes. This bird is wet, which makes its colouring hard to see:
Common name: Superb Fairy-wren and Yellow Thornbill
Scientific name: Malurus cyaneus and Acanthiza nana
Approximate length: 13-14 cm and 9-10 cm
Date spotted: 14 July 2026 (winter)
Location: Marrambidya Wetland near Wagga Wagga, NSW, Australia: 35°05’25.5″S 147°21’27.8″E
Royal Spoonbill at Manly Dam
It’s rare to see a Royal Spoonbill at Manly Dam. In fact, this is only the second time I’ve seen one, over the many years that I’ve been walking at the dam.
This one is a lovely bird, with those yellow stripes above its eyes that make it look a little supercilious, and those intriguing patterns on its beak:
Common name: Royal Spoonbill
Scientific name: Platalea regia
Approximate length: 75-80 cm
Date spotted: 28 July 2026 (winter)
Location: Manly Dam, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’34.8″S 151°14’48.1″E
Brown Honeyeater in Brisbane
I’m in Brisbane for a few days. Early yesterday, I went for a walk along the banks of the Brisbane River. A Brown Honeyeater perched for long enough for me to get a picture. It’s a small, neat bird, with a curved beak and buff-coloured front. The wings and back are olive to brown, with yellow on the wing edges. I think the most striking feature is the dark stripe around the eye, with a yellow touch behind the eye when the light catches it just right.
This is only the second time I’ve spotted a Brown Honeyeater, although they’re quite common. The first one that I saw was also in Queensland, at the botanical gardens in Maleny.
Common name: Brown Honeyeater
Scientific name: Lichmera indistincta
Length: 12-16 cm
Date spotted: 27 June 2025 (winter)
Location: Brisbane River, New Farm, Brisbane, Australia: 27°27’55.3″S 153°03’09.6″E
Little Heron poised on Brisbane river bank
This is my first sighting of a Little Heron. Exciting! At first I thought it was a Nankeen Night Heron, but the folks at eBird sent me a note correcting my entry.
I’m in Brisbane for a few days. This morning early, I went for a walk along the river bank. This gorgeous Little Heron was perched on the opening of a pipe in the river bank, poised to leap off and grab a fish or other unwary river dweller:
This short video shows the bird’s environment: the river and its bank, and the runners pounding past on the riverside path above:
Here’s another view of the bird. I love the long dark plumes on the back of its head:
Common name: Little Heron
Scientific name: Butorides atricapilla
Approximate length: 44 cm
Date spotted: 27 June 2025 (winter)
Location: Brisbane River, New Farm, Brisbane, Australia: 27°27’55.3″S 153°03’09.6″E
Pacific Baza eating a stick insect
This morning, the alert calls of Noisy Miners alerted me to the presence of a predator. I looked up and spotted this beautiful Pacific Baza:
In the above photo, the bird grasps a stick insect in its claw. Pacific Bazas eat large insects such as stick insects (their favourite), praying mantises, and grasshoppers. Sometimes they’ll take a tree-frog or even some fruit.
If you see more than one of these birds, are they Pacific Baza or Pacific Bazas? I don’t know what the official plural is. I’m going with “Bazas” but my spelling checker keeps correcting it to “Baza”!
Another name for this bird is the Crested Hawk, due to the rather odd-looking crest on the top of its head.
Here’s another shot of the bird, this time annoyed by the shrieking Noisy Miners swooping it from above (not visible in the photo):
Common name: Pacific Baza
Scientific name: Aviceda subcristata
Length: 35-45 cm
Wing span: 1 metre
Date spotted: 2 June 2026 (winter)
Location: Manly Dam Park, near Sydney, Australia: 33°46’37.2″S 151°14’51.3″E
Fun facts about Grebes
Yesterday, this beautiful little Australasian Grebe was pottering about in an inlet of Manly Dam:
This grebe is wearing its breeding plumage, with a large chestnut patch stretching from its eye down its neck, and that odd yellow patch at the base of its beak. Outside the breeding season, the yellow patch turns white and the bird’s neck is a dark grey-brown to match its back.
Fun fact: Grebes eat their own feathers and also feed their feathers to their young. People think the goal is to make it easier to swallow fish bones, by wrapping around the bones and preventing injury to the bird.
Another fun fact: Grebes have big feet with lobed toes, more like those of coots than ducks. I’ve never seen a grebe out of the water, but I do have a picture of a coot’s feet, which are rather adorable: The foot of the Coot.
Common name: Australasian Grebe
Scientific name: Tachybaptus novaehollandiae
Approximate length: 23-25 cm
Date spotted: 25 March 2026 (autumn)
Location: Manly Dam Park, near Sydney, Australia: 33°46’34.8″S 151°14’49.6″E
Local group of Glossy Black-Cockatoos now six strong!
Every now and then over the last few years, I’ve seen a group of Glossy Black-Cockatoos on the banks of Manly Dam. They have a few favourite spots, always where the Casuarina trees are in seed.
For the first couple of years, there were always three birds in the group. I don’t know if they were the same birds each time. Then suddenly there were five. And yesterday, for the first time, there were six. Glossies are rare compared to the other types of cockatoos in our area (Sulphur-crested, Yellow-tailed Black, and Corellas), so it’s wonderful to see this group growing in size.
Yesterday was a muggy, grey day. My camera kept misting up due to the high humidity. Every now and then the mist turned to light, drifting rain that settled into blotches on the lens. Still, the video gives you and idea of the gentle, calm presence of these large birds.
Glossies are a type of parrot. In Australia we have 56 species of parrots, including cockatoos, lorikeets, rosellas, ringnecks and budgerigars. Check out my previous sightings of Glossy Black-Cockatoos.
Common name: Glossy Black-Cockatoo
Scientific name: Calyptorhynchus lathami
Approximate length: 50cm
Date spotted: 19 March 2026 (autumn)
Location: Manly Dam Park, near Sydney: 33°46’23.8″S 151°14’39.5″E
Olive-backed Oriole calling and mimicking other birds
I listened to this Olive-backed Oriole for a while, trilling its characteristic call interspersed with imitations of other birds. I managed to get part of its performance on video. As well as being pretty and having a lovely song, this Oriole is an excellent mimic.
At the start of the video, the Oriole reacts to the shriek of Masked Lapwings (also known as Spur-winged Plovers). After a couple of seconds, the Oriole starts its own performance again.
Common name: Olive-backed Oriole
Scientific name: Oriolus sagittatus
Approximate length: 25-28 cm
Date spotted: 17 March 2026 (autumn)
Location: Manly Dam Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’31.7″S 151°14’47.8″E
Tongue of the White-cheeked Honeyeater
A White-cheeked Honeyeater feeds off the flower of a Banksia bush. At 19 to 24 seconds into the video, you can see the bird’s long, thin, white tongue flicking quickly in and out of its beak. The bird chirps every now and then, no doubt commenting about me to the other birds in the area.
Like most honeyeaters, these birds feed on nectar from flowers and also will snap up a handy insect every now and then. Their tongues are long enough to stick out beyond the end of their beaks, making it easier to lap up nectar from a flower.
Common name: White-cheeked Honeyeater
Scientific name: Phylidonyris nigra
Approximate length: 16-19 cm
Date spotted: 25 February 2025 (summer)
Location: Manly Dam Reserve, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’28.7″S 151°14’46.3″E
Shining Bronze-Cuckoo, first sighting
This morning I spotted a bird I hadn’t seen before. What’s more, it was at one of my favourite stomping grounds: Manly Dam. A few minutes after seeing the bird, I showed my photos to another bush walker. He identified the bird as a Shining Bronze-Cuckoo. I think he’s right.
The bird was quite small, with glowing green-blue wings and tail. Its face was light grey and white, and its front had horizontal brown barring on white:
This looks like a juvenile bird, as the barring is not yet as well-defined as in the adults.
Due to the less well-defined barring, I did wonder if this was a Horsefield’s Bronze-Cuckoo. But this bird doesn’t have the dark line through the eye that’s characteristic of Horsefield’s Bronze-Cuckoos, and the white tips of the tail feathers are hidden at rest, while in the Horsefield’s Bronze-Cuckoo the white tips are visible.
Like most other cuckoos, Shining Bronze-Cuckoos don’t build nests. Instead, they lay their eggs in the nest of another bird species and leave the other species to raise their young. Shining Bronze-Cuckoos usually choose the nests of thornbills, gerygones, scrubwrens, or fairy-wrens. There were several Variegated Fairy-wrens in the same area as this cuckoo. I wonder if some of them were the adoptive parents!
Common name: Shining Bronze-Cuckoo
Scientific name: Chrysococcyx lucidis
Length: 16-18 cm
Date spotted: 25 February 2026 (summer)
Location: Manly Dam Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’38.8″S 151°14’49.0″E
Sydney Birder 