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Noisy Miner babies
For a couple of weeks, we had the pleasure of hosting a nest of Noisy Miners in our garden. The adults built the nest in a tree fern, right in the hollow where the new fern leaves sprout. This picture shows the tree fern, with the nest and one of the adult birds in attendance:
It’s a good thing that little Noisy Miners grow so fast. A few years ago, some Red Wattle Birds attempted the same thing, and were forced to abandon the nest when the fern leaves pushed it out of place!
This video shows an adult bird feeding the babies:
With Noisy Miners, feeding the little ones is a communal responsibility. You can’t tell which are the parents. We sometimes saw three birds waiting in line with a goody for the growing babies.
In the above video, the adult is regurgitating nectar or other food. Its long, thin tongue flicks out occasionally. In the next video, a bird brings a large green bug and passes it to the babies. I’m not sure if the bug is a mantid or something else. It’s too early in the season for cicadas:
Here’s a still picture of the little ones begging for food:
After a couple of weeks of feeding and fast growing babies, the nest became pretty full. Then one day, the little ones left the nest. I wasn’t there to see this exciting event, alas. I took this video the day before the nest was suddenly empty:
The little ones are now all round the garden, peeping constantly to get the adults’ attention. For the most part, they’re tucked away safely in the foliage, hard to find from my vantage point on the ground. This picture is of one of the little ones, a few days after leaving the nest:
Here’s the empty nest, with a clothes peg for scale:
Common name: Noisy Miner, also called Australian Miner
Scientific name: Manorina melanocephala
Approximate length of adult bird: 26 cm
Date spotted: September 2021 (spring)
Location: Near Sydney, NSW, Australia
Magpies carolling with a view of Sydney Harbour
This morning I walked along a path overlooking Sydney Harbour and the headlands that act as a gateway to the ocean. A treeful of Australian Magpies provided musical accompaniment.
Common name: Australian Magpie
Scientific name: Gymnorhina tibicen
Approximate length: 40 cm
Date spotted: 3 October 2021 (spring)
Location: Dobroyd Head, Sydney Harbour: 33°48’36.7″S 151°16’03.4″E
First Channel-billed Cuckoo of the season
It’s spring down under, and the cuckoos are back on the east coast of Australia. Last week I heard the calls of Koel Cuckoos and Channel-billed Cuckoos. Now I’ve seen my first one of the season: A Channel-billed Cuckoo sheltering from the local birds in a gum tree.
Channel-billed Cuckoos are large birds (approximately 60 cm long) with red eyes and a big beak. They often look a little scruffy, even ghoulish. The other birds seem to think so too, because they spend a lot of time dive-bombing the cuckoos and shouting at them. Usually the Noisy Miners (living up to their name) are the noisiest of the birds that strive to make the cuckoos feel unwelcome, but other birds play their part too.
This video shows the cuckoo enjoying the peace and quiet of a gum tree. At the start of the video, a Currawong swoops past in a threatening flyby. You don’t actually see the Currawong, but you can hear it and see the cuckoo flinch:
Here’s a photo showing the full length of the cuckoo, including its long, barred tail:
Here’s a view from the back:
Common name: Channel-billed Cuckoo
Scientific name: Scythrops novaehollandiae
Approximate length: 58-65 cm
Date spotted: 19 September 2021 (spring)
Location: Manly Dam Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’33.8″S 151°15’17.8″E
A bonus bird: Just after the Channel-billed Cuckoo flew off, a kookaburra landed on a nearby branch:
Fairy-wrens in full finery
Variegated Fairy-wrens are quite common in my neck of the woods, but they’re very difficult to photograph. They move fast, pause only briefly, and prefer to keep hidden in the shrubbery. I took these shots over a few days, collecting mosquito bites at the same time as usable photos.
It’s spring, and the males are decked out in their breeding finery. They’re like blue fireflies lighting up the bush:
The long tail often sticks straight up. It must present quite a challenge to dashing around the shrubbery:
The females are a soft brown with pale blue hints in the tail. They have a red eye mask which can make them look slightly sardonic:
They’re like tiny little puffballs:
Like many bird names in Australia, the name “fairy-wren” is misleading. These birds aren’t actually wrens. They’re related to honeyeaters and pardalotes.
Common name: Variegated Fairy-wren
Scientific name: Malurus lamberti
Approximate length: 13 cm
Date spotted: September 2021 (spring)
Location: Manly Dam Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’49.9″S 151°15’04.2″E (the male) and 33°46’20.8″S 151°14’30.6″E (the female)
More calls of the Grey Shrike-thrush including a sneeze
A few weeks ago, I posted my first video featuring the call of the Grey Shrike-thrush. I’d read that these birds make a variety of calls. Here are two more to add to the collection: A, short, high-pitched shriek and a longer call interrupted by what sounds like a sneeze or a snort!
When I first heard the sneeze-interrupted song, I thought the bird had made a mistake. But it made the same call consistently over quite a few minutes. Maybe the call is this bird’s variation on a theme, or perhaps the bird is a juvenile who’s still perfecting its song!
Common name: Grey Shrike-thrush
Scientific name: Colluricincla harmonica
Approximate length: 23 cm.
Date spotted: 8 September 2021 (spring)
Location: Manly Dam Reserve, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’15.6″S 151°14’51.5″E
Currawong snacks on brush-turkey’s scrapings
Spring is approaching, and male Australian Brush-turkeys are busily preparing their mounds in the hopes of attracting a female. This year there seem to be more brush-turkeys in my area than ever before. On the plus side, they do a great job of clearing the ground near their chosen location for a mound. On the minus side, the mound itself is a little unsightly. Unless you happen to be a brush-turkey, of course.
A canny currawong hung around close to this particular busy brush-turkey, snapping up the beetles and grubs that the brush-turkey’s scraping exposed:
The brush-turkey was scraping the leaves methodically and energetically in a single direction. His destination lay behind him. So I went round and found the large pile that he was creating. It was already over a metre high and three to four metres across.
A day later, I returned to the area and found the brush-turkey close to his mound:
Common name: Australian Brush-turkey
Scientific name: Alectura lathami
Approximate length: 60-70 cm
Date spotted: 25 August 2021 (winter)
Location: Manly Dam Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’37.7″S 151°14’48.8″E
Pacific Baza pays a visit
Exciting! We had a visit from a rare bird this morning. A juvenile Pacific Baza took refuge in the trees in our garden for a short time.
A Pacific Baza is a large bird of prey with a funny-looking crest on its head. The adults have a white head, neck, and shoulders, whereas this one still has the cinnamon colouring of a juvenile.
These birds are uncommon, mostly found in north and north-east Australia, and are rare in New South Wales (where I am). They eat small reptiles, and praying mantises and stick insects (both of which can be quite large in Australia).
Common name: Pacific Baza
Scientific name: Aviceda subcristata
Length: 35-45 cm
Wing span: 1 metre
Date spotted: 6 July 2021 (winter)
Location: Allambie Heights, NSW, Australia
Sea-Eagles at Manly Dam
For the second time ever, I spotted a White-bellied Sea-Eagle at Manly Dam, north of Sydney. This one was circling high in the sky:
Common name: White-bellied Sea-Eagle
Scientific name: Haliaeetus leucogaster
Approximate length: 85 cm. Wing span: 2.2 m
Date spotted: 3 July 2021 (winter)
Location: Manly Dam Reserve, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’59.2″S 151°15’19.4″E
These eagles are large, imposing creatures. The last time I saw one at the dam was back in April 2017. I didn’t post any pictures then, but now I’ve gone back and rooted out a video of that bird. The eagle was very far away then too, and I had my camera on maximum zoom.
This video, from April 2017, shows the bird coming in to land at a small beach on the opposite side of the dam from where I was:
One day, with luck, I’ll see one of these eagles from closer by!
Local cockatoos excited about new tree stumps
Over the last few weeks, our neighbours have been cutting down some tall trees on their property. The local cockatoos are excited about the new tree stumps that have appeared in their neighbourhood. (I call them “stumps”, but they’re several stories high.) The birds arrive on most evenings to sit on the stumps, and have started hollowing out the centre of one of them. I guess the cockies may be thinking the tree would make a good nest.
You can see the tree felling in my earlier post, Magpie scolds tree feller.
Video of Pardalote emerging from nest
Walking along a path in Manly Dam park this morning, I saw a flash of movement down at ankle level. A little bird had flown straight into the bank on the left of the path:
Pardalotes, tiny as they are, are unusual in that they dig holes in banks of earth to nest in. Here’s a closer view of the area where the bird disappeared:
So I trained my camera on the area and waited. After a few minutes, my patience was rewarded. In the video below, watch the top right of the picture. You’ll see the tiny head of a Spotted Pardalote appear. The bird examines the surroundings carefully before emerging and flying away:
Update: A week or so later, on 12 June, I was walking in the same spot when a bird emerged from the same nest and perched on a branch close by. I managed to get a still photo. Here it is:
I’ve posted more pics of Pardalotes in earlier posts.
Common name: Spotted Pardalote
Scientific name: Pardalotus punctatus
Approximate length: 10 cm
Date spotted: 6 June 2021 (winter)
Location: Manly Dam Park, New South Wales, Australia
Sydney Birder 