Blog Archives
Echidna at Manly North Head
Echidnas are not birds, but I decided to blog about this one anyway because it’s such a cute animal. An Echidna is a mammal, about the size of a fat cat. It has a long, very tough nose that it sticks into the ground in search of ants and termites.
This is a short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus), which is the only living type of echidna found in Australia. There are three other types, which have longer snouts and live in New Guinea.
Echidnas and platypuses are the only mammals that lay eggs. Echidnas look like a cross between an anteater, a porcupine, and a bear. I saw this one at North Head in Manly, near Sydney. As you can hear on the video, the animal attracted a few interested people. It was entirely unfazed by its audience.
The echidna pottered about on the border between the bush and the walking track. We humans kept our distance from each other, due to the social distancing rules currently in place, and we kept our distance from the echidna out of respect for its wildness. It was a pleasure to see this creature going about its everyday life while we’re entangled in a situation of unprecedented weirdness.
Baby Noisy Miners doing well
Here’s an update on the nest of Australian Miners, also known as Noisy Miners, across the road from our house. The babies are getting bigger!
In this video, you see one of the chicks perched on the edge of the nest, making the incessant chirping that’s surely designed to drive a parent mad. One of the adults drops in with a quick morsel of food, and you can see both babies. I’m pretty sure there are only two chicks in the nest:
It’s quite a change since my previous post about the baby birds, just five days ago. This chick looks ready to take its first steps out of the nest:
Common name: Noisy Miner, also called Australian Miner
Scientific name: Manorina melanocephala
Approximate length: 26 cm
Date spotted: 30 March 2020 (late summer)
Location: Near Sydney, NSW, Australia
Kookaburra standoff with Magpie
In this video, a Laughing Kookaburra stands guard against an Australian Magpie. The kookaburra has a stash of some kind of food on the rock behind it. Before I started filming, the magpie tried a few times to approach the food. Now, as seen in the video, the magpie seems more or less resigned to just giving the kookaburra a piece of its mind. At the end of the video, an Australian Miner drops in too. I wish I knew what the Magpie was saying!
This is the kookaburra after it finished its meal and flew to a nearby branch:
Common name: Laughing Kookaburra
Scientific name: Dacelo novaeguineae
Approximate length: 47 cm
Date spotted: 28 March 2020 (late summer)
Location: Near Sydney, Australia
The magpie took refuge on our roof:
Common name: Australian Magpie
Scientific name: Gymnorhina tibicen
Approximate length: 40 cm
Date spotted: 28 March 2020 (late summer)
Location: Near Sydney, Australia
I didn’t get a shot of the Australian Miner. It’s probably one of the birds guarding the nest of baby miners which I’ve blogged about recently.
Noisy Miners nesting off season
Just across the road from my front window, a family of Australian Miners is nesting. They certainly are noisy, living up to their alternative name of Noisy Miners. I was surprised to see the birds nesting at this time of year. It’s late summer, coming up to autumn in this part of the world.
This short video shows a parent feeding the chicks. You can make out the orange beaks of the little ones, particularly when the parent flies away.
Here’s a still picture of the nest. You can see the parent bird, and the underside of a chick’s beak just to the left of the parent, between the parent’s chest and the branch:
It’s busy work, looking after a new family. Both parents are very attentive. Here’s one of them gathering nectar from a Banksia bush in our garden:
Common name: Noisy Miner, also called Australian Miner
Scientific name: Manorina melanocephala
Approximate length: 26 cm
Date spotted: 25 March 2020 (late summer)
Location: Near Sydney, NSW, Australia
Barn Swallows in Curl Curl
While walking along the beach path at Curl Curl, I spotted a few little birds perched on the cables overhead. I snapped some shots and took them home to consult my bird book. At first I thought the birds were Welcome Swallows, but then I noticed the black band across the bird’s chest. I think they’re Barn Swallows, which are less common this far down the east coast of Australia.
Barn Swallows are widespread across Europe, Asia, and North America. In Australia, they’re mostly seen in north-east Queensland and around Darwin in the north west.
Common name: Barn Swallow
Scientific name: Hirundo rustica
Approximate length: 14-17 cm
Date spotted: 22 March 2020 (late summer)
Location: Curl Curl, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’28.6″S 151°17’34.1″E
Birding at home
Like many people, I’m currently working from home to stave off the Coronavirus. There’s a great hashtag on Twitter at the moment: #BirdingAtHome. As a contribution to that hashtag, here are some of the birds I’ve seen at home over the last few days.
Laughing Kookaburra
Scientific name: Dacelo novaeguineae | Approximate length: 47 cm | Date: 17 March 2020
Grey Butcherbird
Scientific name: Cracticus torquatus | Approximate length: 30 cm | Date: 17 March 2020
I think this may be a juvenile, as the lines between the black and white sections of plumage are not well defined. The bird is on a Sydney Red Gum, one of my favourite trees, and currently the biggest tree in our garden:
Australian Magpie
Scientific name: Gymnorhina tibicen | Approximate length: 40 cm | Date: 17 March 2020
This inquisitive Australian Magpie landed on the roof of our porch and peered down at us. It was in a perfect spot to achieve a weird doubling effect with its reflection in the window. The real bird is on the left:
You can see the bird’s head and shoulders at the top and its feet at the bottom. Here’s another pose by the same bird in the same spot on the roof:
The magpie then hopped in through the window and examined the place:
A couple of days earlier, a juvenile magpie (note the soft grey colouring) posed like a statue on a pedestal. The pedestal is the trunk of a tree fern that died off a while ago:
A side view of the same bird on the same perch:
Pied Currawong
Scientific name: Strepera graculina | Approximate length: 45 cm | Date: 11 March 2020
Currawongs are not quite as bold as magpies. They tend to view human activity from afar and swoop past when something interesting is going on. This one chose a mossy perch that showed off its dark plumage and yellow eyes:
Musk Lorikeet
Scientific name: Glossopsitta concinna | Approximate length: 23 cm | Date: 18 March 2020
I don’t often see Musk Lorikeets. At the moment, a number of the gum trees are in flower and are attracting a variety of birds. It’s hard to get a good picture of a Musk Lorikeet. They seem to be more shy than other birds and take care to hide within the foliage as much as possible.
Rainbow Lorikeet
Scientific name: Trichoglossus haematodus | Approximate length: 30 cm | Date: 17 March 2020
We see many of these colourful, quarrelsome birds, and these last few days have been no exception. They were competing with the Musk Lorikeets for the same flowers:
Australian King Parrot
Scientific name: Alisterus scapularis | Approximate length: 44 cm | Date: 15 March 2020
A couple of days ago, I blogged about the two King Parrots that spent some time above our patio. Here’s the male again:
Grey-headed Flying Fox
Scientific name: Pteropus poliocephalus | Approximate length: 30 cm | Date: 18 March 2020
To finish off with, below is a very dark pic of a Flying Fox, which is a bat not a bird. In fact, it’s a megabat (yes, that’s a thing) and is one of the largest bats in the world. These bats eat fruit and flowers, and they visit the flowering trees at night. They make quite a noise, but it’s a privilege to have them around!
The bat is, as usual, upside down. You can see an ear near the bottom of the picture, slightly to left of centre. The nose is higher up on the left. The spiky bit to the right is a folded wing. The feet are attached to a branch at top centre. A Grey Headed Flying Fox is about 30 cm long and has a wing span of one metre.
Happy #BirdingAtHome everyone!
King Parrots add a splash of colour to my garden
Two King Parrots have been flying around the neighbourhood for the last few days. I often hear their piercing whistle. On Sunday, they spent about fifteen minutes on a tree above our terrace. No need to go looking for them. They came to us!
This is the male:
And here’s the female:
They’re on a Scribbly Gum. This wider shot gives you more of an idea of the environment:
We encourage indigenous vegetation in our garden, which means that many birds come visiting! Our garden forms a way point on their route from one nature park to another.
Common name: Australian King Parrot
Scientific name: Alisterus scapularis
Approximate length: 44 cm
Date spotted: 15 March 2020 (late summer)
Location: Allambie Heights, New South Wales, Australia
Golden Whistler known as thunderbird
I managed some good shots of a Golden Whistler recently. The first photo shows the pretty striping on the bird’s wings, as well as its black head and white bib. The bright colours are characteristic of a mature male bird.
I read that these birds are also called thunderbirds because they tend to sing in reaction to sudden loud noises, including thunder. What a grand name for a tiny little scrap!
A while ago, I saw my first Golden Whistler and snapped some shots of it high in the treetops. The pictures were a little fuzzy, because the bird was so far away. In that earlier post there are a couple of videos in which you can hear the song of the Golden Whistler.
These birds don’t stay in one spot for long. Here’s the bird about to head off, giving a nice glimpse of its golden front:
Common name: Golden Whistler
Scientific name: Pachycephala pectoralis
Approximate length: 16-18 cm
Date spotted: 10 March 2020 (late summer)
Location: Manly Dam Reserve, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’27.5″S 151°14’59.8″E
Eastern Rosellas brighten a work day
Today I’m working from home. I heard a gentle twittering outside the window, and looked out just in time to see a male Eastern Rosella serenading his lady love.
I’ve seen and heard these birds a few times before, but this is the first time I’ve managed to see the female before they both fly away. Here she is, looking rather coy:
In my previous post you can see and hear the dance and calls that the male birds make. Interestingly, that post was almost exactly a year ago.
Common name: Eastern Rosella
Scientific name: Platycercus eximius
Approximate length: 30 cm
Date spotted: 10 March 2020 (late summer)
Location: Allambie Heights, NSW, Australia
Grey Goshawk has soft plumage, big eyes, and fierce beak
Although Noisy Miners are a nuisance, they do lead me to plenty of interesting sights. This time they were complaining about this Grey Goshawk that was invading their territory:
The Grey Goshawk looks soft and fluffy, with its light grey and white plumage and large eyes. But it has a fierce beak and strong feet, fit for catching and eating its prey. Evidently it can catch birds as large as a heron.
The Noisy Miners chased the hawk from perch to perch as I watched. The next picture shows the bird at the moment that it decides to take flight. The branch above the hawk seems to be in just the wrong place for optimal wing deployment:
Each time it took flight, the Grey Goshawk uttered a series of short, high-pitched chirps that clashed with the shrieking of the Noisy Miners. Almost as if it was telling them off!
Wing deployment progressing despite unfortunate position of upper branch:
Wing deployment looking good, initiating detachment from lower branch:
The hawk took off and coasted through the tops of the trees. Soon after it disappeared from view, a group of cockatoos burst from the tree tops and circled the area, shrieking and shouting in alarm.
This was my first sighting of a Grey Goshawk. What a beautiful bird.
Common name: Grey Goshawk
Scientific name: Accipiter novaehollandiae
Approximate length: 40-55 cm. Wing span: 70-110 cm.
Date spotted: 24 February 2020 (summer)
Location: Manly Dam Reserve, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’36.9″S 151°14’47.7″E
Sydney Birder 