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A row of cockatoos and one raven
The arrival of the raven: It’s pouring with rain. Several Sulphur-crested Cockatoos line up on the wall of Manly Dam. Clumping together for company in the dismal weather. An Australian Raven joins the line-up. The cockatoos eye the interloper up and down, but don’t make too much of a fuss. Some of them get bored and head for a nearby tree:
Off camera: A runner arrives and the rest of the cockatoos depart for the tree. The raven doesn’t budge. Another raven arrives.
The return of the cockatoos: They need to reclaim their perch! The strategy seems to be simply to pile into the line-up until it becomes too uncomfortable for the ravens. One raven departs quickly, the other sticks it out for a while, then decides to retreat to a higher roost and gaze down at the silly, squawking cockatoos:
Common name: Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
Scientific name: Cacatua galerita
Approximate length: 50 cm
Common name: Australian Raven
Scientific name: Corvus coronoides
Approximate length: 50 cm
Date spotted: 28 March 2025 (autumn)
Location: Manly Dam, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’55.3″S 151°15’20.1″E
Kookaburra reflecting on a reflector
I love the muted colours of this Laughing Kookaburra. The bird stood unmoving on a post above a red reflector disc, just thinking about life and stuff.
Common name: Laughing Kookaburra
Scientific name: Dacelo novaeguineae
Approximate length: 47 cm
Date spotted: 2 April 2025 (autumn)
Location: Manly Dam near Sydney, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’36.9″S 151°14’48.8″E
More Noisy Friarbirds in Sydney’s Northern Beaches
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve seen and heard several Noisy Friarbirds at Manly Dam in Sydney’s Northern Beaches. The birds seem to have moved in for the long haul. It’s exciting — I’ve only seen these birds further north and west before now.
Today I managed to actually get some images of the birds in a video, as well as their weird calls:
In the video, most of the noise is made by the friarbirds, but there are Rainbow Lorikeets chirping throughout, and the occasional Little Wattlebird too.
You can see more pictures of friarbirds in my other posts, taken in other areas of Australia.
Common name: Noisy Friarbird
Scientific name: Philemon corniculatus
Approximate length: 30-35 cm
Date spotted: 2 April 2025 (autumn)
Location: Manly Dam Reserve, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’43.4″S 151°14’52.8″E
Noisy Friarbirds at Manly Dam!
I was excited to hear Noisy Friarbirds at Manly Dam park in Sydney’s Northern Beaches. I haven’t seen these birds in the area before — they’re more common further north and west.
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve heard the unforgettable sounds that these birds make. Today I managed to take some photos. In the video, you can hear the odd sounds made by the Noisy Friarbirds amongst other bird calls, but you don’t actually see the friarbirds. They’re very hard to spot.
The first bird sound in the video is the chirping of Rainbow Lorikeets. The laugh-like cackle and chatter of the Noisy Friarbirds begins soon after the start, at about 0:02. The lorikeets continue chirping throughout. In the background is the cackle of some Little Wattlebirds, which is similar to the friarbirds’ call but less varied in tone and style.
I did manage to snap a few photos of two friarbirds, though they’re quite blurry. This photo shows one of the friarbirds perched briefly out in the open:
Another friarbird was having an altercation with a Rainbow Lorikeet. The friarbird was the one to cede ground:
You can see some better pictures of friarbirds in my other posts, taken in other areas of Australia.
Common name: Noisy Friarbird
Scientific name: Philemon corniculatus
Approximate length: 30-35 cm
Date spotted: 26 March 2025 (summer)
Location: Manly Dam Reserve, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’42.5″S 151°14’54.3″E
Call of the Whipbird
An Eastern Whipbird does his morning grooming, stopping occasionally to call to his friends. The noise that whipbirds make is strange: “eeeuuw-phwit”. It reminds people of a whip whistling and cracking, and that’s what gives the bird its name.
In the background, you can hear other whipbirds replying. Each time, a bird off-camera echoes the long drawn-out call of the on-camera bird( “eeeuuw-phwit”) then another bird also off-camera replies immediately (“phit-phit-pheeuw”). These two off-camera calls sound like a single call, but they’re actually from two birds.
Common name: Eastern Whipbird
Scientific name: Psophodes olivaceus
Approximate length: 30 cm
Date spotted: 9 March 2025 (summer)
Location: Manly North Head, Sydney Harbour, NSW, Australia: 33°48’55.1″S 151°17’58.9″E
If you were a baby Brush-turkey
If you were a baby Brush-turkey strolling down The Corso in Manly …
… and you could choose between a summer hat, a list of summer reads, or something that might be a worm, which would you choose?
The baby Brush-turkey is quite cute and pretty. The adults are much larger and not very pretty, though they do have a certain dinosaur dignity. Here’s an adult male from one of my other posts about Australian Brush-turkeys.
Common name: Australian Brush-turkey
Scientific name: Alectura lathami
Approximate length of adult bird: 60-70 cm
Date spotted: 11 February 2025 (summer)
Location: The Corso, Manly, New South Wales, Australia: 33°47’51.8″S 151°17’12.9″E
Peregrine Falcon in the suburbs
It was good to see this Peregrine Falcon perched high in a tree above the rooftops in Sydney’s Northern Beaches.
They’re beautiful birds, with that fierce eye and the contrast between yellow and black colouring. I’ve seen just a few Peregrine Falcons before, usually in a wilder setting. Check out the posts about my other sightings of Peregrine Falcons.
Common name: Peregrine Falcon
Scientific name: Falco Peregrinus
Approximate length: 42 cm
Date spotted: 15 February 2025 (summer)
Location: Allambie Heights, New South Wales, Australia. Approximate map reference: 33°46’18.2″S 151°15’39.4″E
Lost! Baby Purple Swamphen
A baby Purple Swamphen hops around the lily pads, sticking close to the safety of her mother. But where is her little brother?
I love the baby birds’ tiny little wings. They look like little arms flapping about. At first, I thought that the baby had caught a frog. No, it’s just those little wing stubs.
But where is her brother? Another tiny little Purple Swamphen is lost amongst the reeds! It’s hard to see how such a tiny thing can find his way back to his mother and sister, so far away among the giant lily pads:
I don’t know whether these birds are male or female, so I’ve just picked pronouns at random. Both sexes of Purple Swamphens look after their young, and they’re hard to tell apart.
Mother might not have the most beautiful face, but she offers safety and comfort:
Will the little one find his way back? His sister gazes across the lily pads, as if searching for him:
At last, the wanderer spots his family and hurries across the lily pads. His sister greets him warmly, while mother looks on fondly:
Common name: Purple Swamphen
Scientific name: Porphyrio porphyrio
Approximate length of adult: 50 cm
Date spotted: 5 February 2025 (summer)
Location: Manly Dam Reserve, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’35.4″S 151°14’49.1″E
A rather shaggy Whipbird
This little whipbird looks as if it hasn’t combed its feathers in a while. Still, it’s a nice-looking bird. It might be a juvenile, still coming into full feather:
Whipbirds spend their time mostly in the low shrubbery, often rustling around in the leaves on the ground. As a result, they’re hard to spot and they usually look dark brown and black in colour. It’s nice to see one with a bit of sunlight on its feathers, bringing out the soft olive green glow on the wings and tail.
The noise that whipbirds make is strange: “eeeuuw-phwit”. It reminds people of a whip whistling and cracking, and that’s what gives the bird its name. I managed to get a good video of them calling, which I published in an earlier post.
Common name: Eastern Whipbird
Scientific name: Psophodes olivaceus
Approximate length: 30 cm
Date spotted: 16 January 2025 (summer)
Location: Dobroyd Head in Sydney Harbour, NSW, Australia: 33°48’34.0″S 151°16’25.3″E
A beautiful orange cormorant
Usually, Little Pied Cormorants have bright white and shiny black feathers. This one, though, has a lovely burnished orange head and chest. This is probably due to staining from natural iron deposits in the water.
Here’s a short video, showing the back of the bird’s head with a neat black stripe between the orange feathers of the bird’s face:
Common name: Little Pied Cormorant
Scientific name: Phalacrocorax melanoleucos
Approximate length: 60 cm
Date spotted: 20 January 2025 (summer)
Location: Manly Dam, Allambie Heights, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’35.1″S 151°14’48.5″E
Sydney Birder 