A brief visitor – Horsfield’s Bronze-cuckoo
I was out in our garden yesterday when I saw one of our resident Willie Wagtails chasing a bird I didn’t recognise at first. When it eventually sat still enough and I could get a reasonable look at it, I realised that it was a Horsfield’s Bronze-cuckoo.
Nothing unusual about that. We often hear them calling in the spring time and sometimes during the summer too. Sometimes they stay around for a few days and at other times they are just passing through.
What is unusual about this sighting is the timing. Most of this species has already flown north for the winter by the end of March, or even earlier. This individual was either a little tardy in its migration, or it was lulled into staying by our warm start to autumn. On the other hand, some individuals of many of our cuckoo species here in Australia are known to occasionally “over winter”. This means that they don’t migrate to northern Australia but prefer to stay and enjoy our brisk winter. Probably saves quite an effort in flying all that way, too.
Sadly, I don’t have a photo of this species yet, and it had flown off before I could fetch the camera from in the house. Despite that, it was a nice sighting at this time of the year.
Good birding.
Let’s all have a bird shower
Shower time in the bird bath
The birds in our garden really enjoy bathing in the bird baths we have provided. On warm days there is a constant stream of birds representing many species coming to drink and bathe. Sometimes it is not unusual to have 10 – 15 birds bathing, or waiting to bathe.
The New Holland Honeyeaters shown in this series of photos are perhaps the most demonstrative of all the species. They will often come in numbers, screeching out to family and friends to come and join them while the water goes in all directions. In fact, on hot days I need to replenish the water at least once a day, sometimes more.
In this series of photos I have captured more than just birds having a bath. The water sprays every where, creating a sort of ‘bird shower’ effect. The solitary Common Starling manages to keep its composure in the midst of all the chaos around him.
Click on any image to enlarge.
Shower time in the bird bath
Shower time in the bird bath
Shower time in the bird bath
Crested Pigeon close up
Crested Pigeon
We love having the Crested Pigeons in our garden and on our two hectare (5 acre) block. They are a resident breeding species here and we see them every day. I’ve never really done a census count on how many there are around here, but we always seem to have at least a a half dozen or more. On a few occasions I have counted up to about 40 perching on the power lines running along the road side.
Crested Pigeons make a flimsy nest of a few sticks and it always surprises me how the eggs can possibly stay in the nest. An even greater mystery is how the chicks remain in the nest. They must be able to cope because they are very successful birds, breeding frequently.
Our local resident pigeons regularly visit our bird baths. This gives me many opportunities to do photographic studies of this species. Yesterday the bird in this set of photos posed nicely for me, first in the shade (see below) and then closer to me in the sunlight.
Crested Pigeon
Crested Pigeon
Noisy Grey Currawongs
Grey Currawong
Grey Currawongs are common and widespread in the area where I live in South Australia. Until the last few years, however, they only occasionally visited our garden and the mallee scrub near our home. Their visits have become very regular of late and on a few occasions they have been feeding semi-independent young., often accompanied by raucous begging from the young.
They usually do not hang around too long and only pass through our 5 acre property in a few minutes. Over the last few hours today, however, their calling has been very persistent and loud. Not sure what all the fuss is about, but it has been going on few some hours. I can’t really work out why they are hanging around for so long.
Mind you, it is generally a pleasant sound but could get annoying if it went on all day.
Further reading
- Young Grey Currawongs
- Great Birding Moments #2 – Pied Currawong
- Curry the Currawong – the story of a friendly currawong
Who has lost a canary?
Escaped Canary in our garden
We’d just finished lunch a while ago and were sitting on our back veranda enjoying a cuppa. The barbecue I’d coked had been delicious and the weather was fine. I was absorbed in a novel I’m reading when my wife suddenly drew my attention to a canary on the ground about three metres away.
I quietly went inside to get my camera and it stayed long enough for me to take about a dozen photos. The best ones are shown here. It has obviously escaped from someone’s aviary; they are certainly not native to Australia. Two or our nearest neighbours keep canaries so it may well have escaped from their aviaries. It was very tame, allowing me to approach to within a metre or two, but wary enough to keep out of reach. Catching it poses a few problems.
Sadly, such a brightly coloured bird could easily become easy prey for the local Brown Falcons, Collared Sparrowhawks and others.
Further reading:
Escaped Canary in our garden
Escaped Canary in our garden