Red Wattlebirds with young
Juvenile Red Wattlebird
Red Wattlebirds, a member of the honeyeater family of birds in Australia, is a common bird in our garden in Murray Bridge, South Australia. In fact, this species is a resident breeding bird in our garden. At any one time we probably have 5 – 10 individuals present, possibly more.
In recent weeks they have been a little more aggressive towards other species than normal, and that’s saying something! They can be very bossy at the best of times, especially to smaller birds like pardalotes.
A few days ago I discovered what I had suspected; they have been nesting. While their nest is not all that small, we do have many hundreds of trees and shrubs so it is hard to keep up with what is actually nesting.
I found them feeding two juvenile birds quite close to the house. If you click on the photo you will enlarge the image and be able to see the downy feathers of the young.
Juvenile Red Wattlebird
Juvenile Red Wattlebird
Aggressive Red Wattlebirds
Red Wattlebird
This morning I was suddenly aware of a noisy disturbance just outside my office window. I looked up to see three Red Wattlebirds locked in a furious battle in the garden bed. In fact, I thought at first it was only two fighting each other. As I reached for my camera, they flew off, and I saw that there had been three birds fighting.
What caused this kerfuffle? I have no idea. As they flew off two of them were aggressively chasing the third one. The battle may well have continued elsewhere.
Red Wattlebird
Brown-headed Honeyeaters
Brown-headed Honeyeater
Brown-headed Honeyeaters are one of the smallest honeyeaters found in Australia. They are about the size of a House Sparrow and are certainly the smallest honeyeaters in our garden. The White-plumed Honeyeaters are not much bigger.
While I would probably classify this species as a resident species in our garden, they do tend to come and go quite frequently. We see or hear them most days, then several days might pass without a sign of them. I guess they tend to have quite large territories around here.
The individual shown in the photo above is unusual. It was alone while feeding at the flower (click on the photo to enlarge the image). Earlier in the day – before I grabbed the camera – several others had been coming to feed on this bloom.
Brown-headed Honeyeaters are quite gregarious. When they come to our bird baths they often come in a small flock of 10 – 15 all crowding around looking for a drink. When it is bath time, they will often line up on a nearby branch and wait their turn to have a dip. I guess that they are very polite birds.
Aggressive birds
This morning I was on my way to take my mother-in-law shopping. As I passed the local golf course an Australian Magpie flew low and rapidly across the road in front of my car. Nothing unusual about that.
Hot on its tail, however, was a New Holland Honeyeater, aggressively chasing the much bigger magpie and snapping at its tail feathers.
It always amuses me how some of our smallest birds will actively and quite aggressively harass birds many times their size. Probably the most bizarre example I’ve seen is a Willie Wagtail coming in at about 20 cm (8 inches) attacking our largest bird of prey, the Wedge-tailed Eagle at about 110 cm (44 inches) and a wing span of 280 cm (112 inches).
These little birds know instinctively that the larger birds often prey upon their nests, taking eggs or baby birds. They seem to know no fear as they protect their little ones.
Australian Magpie
New Holland Honeyeater
Willie Wagtail
Birds in the heat
Thornbills and honeyeaters sheltering on a hot day
We are only half way through summer here in South Australia and already we’ve had some very hot days and several heatwaves. (In this part of the world a heatwave is considered to be five or more consecutive days of 35C (95F). ) During this last week we had several days where the maximum hovered around the 42 -45C mark (45C = 113F).
During our hot days, and especially during a heat wave, our native birds suffer terribly. Many beat a path frequently to the various bird baths we have in our garden. On a few occasions some of them have gathered near the windows where the cool air from our evaporative air conditioning leaves the house.
A few days ago I saw a different technique for keeping cool. The wind was blowing a gale from the north and the temperature reached 45.2C. A flock of 17 Yellow-rumped Thornbills, two Brown-headed Honeyeaters and a Willie Wagtail gathered on the leeward side of the house in the shade. It seemed to do the trick on a very nasty day.