Eastern Rosella – a new species for our garden list
Eastern Rosella
Eastern Rosellas are one of the colourful parrot species to be found here in Australia. It is a relatively common parrot found in south eastern Australia and Tasmania. It has been introduced into the Mt Lofty Ranges and Adelaide region of south Australia as well as New Zealand.
Here in Murray Bridge I’ve only recorded it once several years ago. On that occasion it appeared to be an aviary escape. The nearest naturally occurring birds are some 60 kilometres to the west.
Over recent days we have had a single Eastern Rosella flying around our garden. This is a new species for my garden list. It does not appear to be a cage bird as it is very flighty. I struggled to get close enough for a reasonable photo. The photos on this post have been enhanced – zoomed in and brightened to show the beautiful colours. Consequently they are not top quality shots.
Eastern Rosella
The behaviour of this individual was interesting. We have several Mallee Ringnecks resident on our property. Recently they produced two young ones that follow them everywhere and beg to be fed. The Eastern Rosella tried to adopt this family who were having none of it. They tried to chase it away but it was most insistent and would fly up and sit close to one of the ringnecks. The ringnecks would then attempt to chase it away again. This continued for about twenty minutes before the rosella gave and flew away. It has been back several times so I don’t know whether it intends taking up residence or not.
It would be a very colourful addition to our garden birds.
Eastern Rosella
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Pacific Black Ducks breeding
Pacific Black Duck
It is with some embarrassment that I post this article. For several reasons.
The first is that during the cooler months of the year we have two and sometimes three Pacific Black Ducks visit our garden, specifically to take a dip in our swimming pool – or should I call that Le Swamp? (I’m not very good at maintaining it.) On several occasions we have had to rescue about a dozen little ducklings that have followed their mother into the pool, only to find that they cannot get out again and head off down to the river a few kilometres away. We love seeing the ducks up so close, but I do feel embarrassed about the state of the “pool”.
Late last week I was sitting on the back veranda enjoying the lovely spring sunshine and reading a good book. It could have even been The Good Book. The ducks flew in and skidded on the surface of the pool water before settling down for a spot of sun as well.
After about ten minutes they both entered the water and began excitedly circling each other, constantly dipping their beaks into the water. Now comes embarrassing admission #2. I actually witnessed them in a moment of passionate embrace! The male mounted the female, grabbing her neck feathers in his beak and holding her head just out of the water. Her body was totally submerged.
This wonderful moment was followed by ten minutes of excited flapping, splashing, ducking under the water and general preening as the couple celebrated their union.
I wonder if we’ll have a raft of ducklings in the pool in a few weeks time?
Pacific Black Ducklings, Bordertown, South Australia
Red Wattlebirds nesting
Red Wattlebird
I was quietly having my breakfast this morning when a Red Wattlebird flew into the bush near our sun room. It proceeded to pull off a small twig from a Melaleuca bush. It then flew off rapidly to a Eucalyptus tree next to the driveway. Less than a minute later it was back again, swinging on a small twig until it was dislodged, then off to the tree again. It repeated the action every minute or so.
After finishing my breakfast – and ignoring the newspaper – I wandered out to the driveway to have a look. Sure enough, a half constructed nest was located high in the thick foliage. I actually had to follow the bird’s flight to locate the nest. It’s well hidden from prying eyes. While I watched the another Red Wattlebird flew in from a different part of the garden and added to the nest.
I’ll have to keep an eye on this nest over the coming few weeks to watch for evidence of chicks.
It is spring here in South Australia and many birds are busy nesting of feeding young.
Further reading:
- Synchronised flying by wattlebirds
- Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra
- Honeyeaters and flowers
- Close encounters of the bird kind
Red Wattlebird
Red Wattlebird
Synchronised flying by wattlebirds
I regularly get comments and questions from readers of this blog. It is one of the delights of having a blog. Today I received a question via my email contact form. I must admit I’ve never witnessed this strangely compelling activity on the part of Red Wattlebirds. Can any readers help?
I stumbled on your page while doing a search on what we call Synchronised Red Wattle Birds. For the past few years we have noticed an interesting behaviour of 2 red wattle birds in our back yard (Coromandel Valley, South Australia). They fly in unison from the back fence and land at the same time on the railing of our balcony. Then they squawk at each other turn around and fly off at exactly the same time and land again on the back fence at exactly the same time. They can repeat this for up to 1/2 an hour at a time.
If one accidentally takes off before the other, it quickly returns, squawks and then they leave together. Have you seen this behaviour before and do you have any idea what it is all about? We thought maybe flight training for young but perhaps they are practicing for a synchronised flying competition.
It is great fun to watch and they look like they are having a super time.
Cheers Leslie
This sounds like they are having great fun. Could it be just play? Is it sexual behaviour? I’ve done a search of my reference books and there is no mention of this behaviour. Over to my readers – use the contact form or the comments section below.
Red Wattlebird
Red Wattlebird
Very Common Starlings
Common Starling feeding young in nesting hollow
Common Starlings are becoming far too common around here in Murray Bridge South Australia.
At the moment their breeding season is in full swing. Our home is situated in several acres of old growth mallee scrub. Being old trees, they have many hollows. The starlings take advantage of this and use every available hollow for nesting. The sound of begging young fills the air. I decided that it was time I took a close up photo of the parent birds entering the nest to feed the young ones.
They are very wary birds around their nests, so I had to be a little cunning. I actually used our car as a bird hide in order to get a close up shot.
Who was I kidding?
They must have seen me getting into the car because the adult photographed was still very hesitant about entering the nest. Eventually, after about a ten minute wait, the calls of the young must have become too insistent, and I managed to get the shot I wanted.
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