Kangaroos and Honeyeaters: a happy arrangement
Brown-headed Honeyeater
Quite often I receive some fascinating accounts about birds from my readers. Often these are left in the comments box and all are able to read them.
On other occasions people use the contact form and this is fine too, but only I get to read them. Some of these are too good to keep to myself.
Kerry is one such reader. By coincidence she lives only a fifteen minute drive from where I live. Her experience of the relationship between kangaroos and honeyeaters is fascinating. I have also seen this kind of behaviour with koalas in Victoria.
Thanks to Kerry for giving me permission to quote her.
Hi Trevor, I have just discovered your site and I absolutely love it!
My husband and I are wildlife carers through Fauna Rescue and we have just recently moved into the area (we are half way between Murray Bridge and Tailem Bend on 120 acres of mallee scrub) so your site is proving very helpful in identifying local species.
One of our favourites is the Brown-headed Honeyeater. We raise orphan kangaroos and we have 2 acres of mallee scrub fenced in to raise the kangaroos (we have western greys and reds). Come late winter, the little Brown-headed Honeyeaters assiduously collect fur from our kangaroos to line their nests and this continues all the way through to December (for refurbishment purposes we assume).
They only ever pluck fur from the western greys and ignore the reds completely. We assume that is because the greys have longer fur than the reds, which are more desert dwelling. The honeyeaters land on the backs of the western greys and pluck fur out until their beaks are completely stuffed and then they fly off. I have seen up to three birds on the back of one roo, busily plucking out fur. The roos don’t mind at all and make no effort to move away or brush the birds off – maybe they like the sensation of being groomed so it is a symbiotic relationship! They are extraordinary little birds.
The Rabbit and the Honeyeater
Rabbit in our garden
Yesterday I saw one of our resident rabbits hopping through the garden near our rose bushes. It stayed long enough for several good photos. Until earlier this year we only ever saw hares on our property. There were very few rabbits here over the last decade or more – since the accidental release of the rabbit calicivirus in 1995. This year has seen the return of rabbits immune to the virus; not in huge numbers but worrying all the same. We have at least two living on our five acre block.
After taking the photos of the rabbit, a Singing Honeyeater flew in to collect several insects on the window. It paused briefly on the window sill, long enough to get this good photo. It was less than two metres from me.
I love special birding moments like that.
Click on the photos to enlarge the image.
Singing Honeyeater on a window ledge
Tasmanian Wildlife blog
This article is well overdue. I should have done this ages ago.
There are literally thousands of excellent natural history blogs on the internet these days. Many of them have a focus on just one area – like mine does with birds. Others cover a much broader range of topics.
The Nature of Tasmania is one such blog. It covers many aspects of Tasmania’s natural history – flora, fauna and geology – and much more. If you are only interested in birds it is still worth paying a visit – even if it is just for the wonderful photos. But this blog is far more than just photos…
Koalas do not fly like birds
Koalas are generally quite docile animals.
It is not unusual to see them sitting or dozing up in a eucalypt tree. They prefer not to be on the ground as they probably feel most vulnerable there. When on the ground they are often quite slow moving.
Imagine my surprise then, to see a koala RUNNING across the freeway last week on my way to Adelaide. In fact, it was surprising that the poor creature was not killed. A six-lane freeway with a concrete barrier in the middle is not the place for a Koala. The transport authorities have placed many weld-mesh “ladders” over this barrier at regular intervals every few metres to assist the Koalas crossing the road. It is pleasing to see that not many koalas actually do get hit. Considering all of this then, it is a pity that Koalas cannot fly like birds; the freeway would not be such a barrier to them then.
I’ve only witnessed two interactions between birds and Koalas over the years. The first was on the Mornington Peninsula south east of Melbourne. A Koala was asleep in a tree. A honeyeater (I forget the species) was busily collecting the Koala’s fur and taking it to line its nest. As it picked each beak full, it looked like the honeyeater had whiskers!
Koala and Magpie
The other incident is shown in the photo above. This sleepy Koala was being harassed by the Magpie for having the temerity to be in its territory. The photo was taken in the Wittunga Botanic Gardens in the Adelaide Hills.
Further reading:
- Great Birding Moments: Koala
- Wittunga Botanic Gardens part 1
- Wittunga Botanic Gardens part 2
- Wittunga Botanic gardens part 3
- Wittunga Botanic Gardens part 4
Birds and Dogs do not mix
My wife had an appointment in Adelaide on Wednesday. I remained in the car in an adjacent park, fortunate to get a shady park on such a hot day. At one point my attention was distracted from doing the crossword in the paper.
A lady entered the park nearby and released her dog from its leash. The dog immediately sprinted across the grass chasing the half dozen or so Australian Magpies and Magpie Larks. The birds abruptly stopped feeding and flew frantically to nearby trees. They did not return to foraging for more than ten minutes after the dog and owner moved out of the park. During the two hours I was there this process was repeated about a dozen times but in less dramatic ways. Most of the other dogs were much more docile, and some were on leads. At one point another dog disturbed a flock of about twenty Crested Pigeons feeding on the ground.
Crested Pigeons
Dogs on the loose can severely impact the feeding habits of many species of birds. For ground nesting birds, especially on beaches, the impact can be devastating. Eggs can be trampled on and broken and nestlings killed and eaten.
There is little I could have done to protect the birds or to make a complaint to the dog owners in this situation, however. The park is one of very few in metropolitan Adelaide as a designated dog park, meaning that the dogs are able to run freely. This has been an area of contention over recent years because there are so few such parks where dogs can roam freely. In my experience dog owners are very vocal and local councils generally listen to their lobbying.
Very rarely does someone speak up for the birds, and that is a concern.
Related article: