Noisy Miners, Sturt Reserve, Murray Bridge
Noisy Miner, Sturt Reserve, Murray Bridge
The Noisy Miner, one of a very common native honeyeater species, is something of an enigmatic bird in our area. It is common almost everywhere, from gardens to parks, along the river and roadside vegetation and in nearby farming land. Yet I’ve never recorded this species on our five acre block which is about five kilometres from where this photo was taken.
My records go back almost 30 years and I only have one very dubious record of the species near our home. It was based entirely on call, but ever since I have doubted this record as being correct. I became a little excited a few weeks ago when I saw about a dozen in roadside trees along the nearby road where I go for my daily walk. So far, they haven’t ventured on to our land. One day, perhaps.
In reality, if they do become a resident species I probably won’t be all that pleased. They can be a little pest where fresh fruit is concerned, and they can also be very aggressive towards most other species, driving the smaller ones away and taking over feeding zones and nesting sites.
Noisy Miner, Sturt Reserve, Murray Bridge
It would be a mixed blessing if they moved in, I see quite a lot up in Newcastle when visiting there- they certainly are noisy! We seem to have been seeing the same birds recently, my noisy miner shots from January..
http://astrongbeliefinwicker.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/noisy-miner.html
Indeed, Louise. We are currently visiting family in Artarmon (near Chatswood, Sydney) and they are very common all around here – and very noisy too. I noticed them frequently on the drive over from SA, some of them being their cousins, the Yellow-throated Miner.
Yep, they live up to their name. They like to chase the local corvidae around here. The Crested Pigeons on the other hand won’t have a bar of the noisy miner’s raucous behaviour, the local Crested Pigeons give the miners a CP equivalent of a back-hander if the noisy miners get too close too often.
[…] Yellow-throated Miners are found over much of Australia except for the wetter eastern and southern coastal regions and Tasmania. A similar species is the Noisy Miner. […]