Seasonal bird visitors to our home garden
A few days ago I wrote about my favourite birding spot. That spot happens to be my home garden, because I spend most of my time at home. I am therefore very familiar with its bird life and instantly know if there is different call coming from somewhere near the house.
In that post I talked about those species that are resident in our garden, either present all the time or are frequently seen or that regularly fly overhead. Of the 113 different species I have recorded over some 22 years, 36 could be regarded as resident. The remainder would be either seasonal or occasional visitors. Several species I would regard as vagrant, meaning they have been only observed once or on only a few occasions.
Seasonal Visitors
Seasonal visitors to our area would include the following species:
- Pallid Cuckoo (late winter, spring, summer)
- Horsfield’s Bronze-Cuckoo (spring, summer)
- Rainbow Bee-eater (spring, summer)
- Singing Bushlark (late winter, spring)
- Skylark (late winter, spring, summer)
- Rufous Songlark (spring, summer)
- Grey Fantail (winter, spring)
- Striped Honeyeater (spring, summer)
Some of these species are not regular visitors every year. For example, the Rainbow Bee-eater has been recorded breeding here, and sometimes we see and hear dozens of them but some summers we have not seen or heard a single bird.
Some species, it seems, like to keep us on our toes.
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