Quite some birds with very few words

Time to tidy up blog pictures file. Some images fail to trigger use on or near day of shooting and somehow time passes without them triggering what might, with luck, be considered a few interesting words. So, no more words - just some birds.

Galahs:

  Brown Honeyeaters:

Golden-headed Cisticolas:

Silver Gull:

Lovely Fairywren:

Barefaced blag of birder's bicycle at Bald Rock

This is Bald Rock. Serene. Scenic. Witness to mountain bike exercisers below and around it every day. And birders, on foot and bicycle. 

Home to many Brown-backed Honeyeaters: juvenile above.

And  Brown Honeyeaters - though not in the numbers elsewhere in the Town Common.

So peaceful (juvenile Peaceful Dove above). 1.7 kilometres from the Freshwater parking area, nearest point of legal motor vehicle use. Nobody living within about 4km. No need, obviously, to lock a bicycle left leaning against a tree while the rider goes birding. Right? Think again. Today, bike gone. And new foot pump. And new tube. And repair tools. And bug spray. Slow walk back to Troopy.

Possibly not crime of the year. But one can dream of chaining someone to Bald Rock. And having an eagle eat his liver. Just the once, mind. For eternity might be overdoing it.

Dusky beauty heads honeyeater handful

Dusky Honeyeater (Myzomela obscura) in Tyto Wetlands yesterday (losing out to Brown and Yellow HEs in fight for nearby flowering bottlebrush.

Brown Honeyeater (Lichmera indistincta) on the bottlebrush.

Yellow Honeyeater ready for action (Lichenostomus flavus)

Earlier, White-throated Honeyeater (Melithreptus albogularis) also on bottlebrush.

And White-gaped Honeyeater (Lichenostomus unicolor) not so sweet-loving as it collects Cheese Tree seeds. 
Click pix to enlarge

Helpful handful of honeyeaters

Bird counts in Tyto showing a slow rise, with a handful of honeyeater species helping boost numbers. Hard to miss noisy groups of Yellow Honeyeaters (Lichenostomus flavus).

Also found in small bands at times and good guides to pythons, White-gaped Honeyeater (Lichenostomus unicolor).

Building up after almost vanishing from the wetlands after Yasi, Brown Honeyeater (Lichmera indistincta).
Click pix to enlarge

Crimson leads the red brigade

A few bright reds stood out from all the green under plenty of cloud in Tyto today. Male Crimson Finch (Neochmia phaeton) busy outside the hide, looking for nest positions after two false starts under the eaves. Bird checked former nest hole in paperbark trunk, taken over by black ants. Eviction unlikely, but fingers crossed.

Male Mistletoebird (Dicaeum hirundinaceum) jigged about in favourite habitat without  ever dancing clear of it.

Comb-crested Jacana (Irediparra gallinacea) also seemed to be going out of its way to hide behind reeds, grasses and flowers as it picked a path across the lily pads.

Finally, in keeping with colour theme, holdover picture of Brown Honeyeater (Lichmera indistincta) amid bottlebrush flowers they cannot get enough of.
Click pix to enlarge   

Honeyeaters feel the weather

Juvenile Brown Honeyeater (Lichmera indistincta) with temporary crest courtesy of strong winds that have persisted lately. Happily, though mornings are clouded more often than not, blue-sky days should soon settle upon us.   

Certainly this Yellow Honeyeater (Lichenostomus flavus) on tulip tree seed pod in Tyto yesterday seemed happy in late afternoon warmth.

Pair of Red-backed Fairy-wrens (Malurus melanocephalus) pause during mutual preening session. Tried without luck for more loving interaction between birds but one or other would always turn away.

Agile Wallaby mother and young show a bit more togetherness for the camera.

Yellow Honeyeater digs in

Yellow Honeyeater (Lichenostomus flavus) about to enjoy a juicy catch after much effort dragged fat prey out from its tightly curled leaf home at Tyto today. Honeyeaters are partial to insect prey, Yellows particularly so. Bill length and shape helps tell the story.

So no trouble seeing that a Brown Honeyeater (Lichmera indistincta) spends more time chasing nectar with its more delicate bill and tongue. 

Brown-backed Honeyeater (Ramsayornis modestus) - in typical quizzical pose - will, with others of the species, take over flowering paperbarks and drive other honeyeaters away, but more usually enjoys a general diet.      

Bronze-Cuckoos - golden mornings

Trio of Little Bronze-Cuckoos (Chalcites minutillus) notably busy in a scruffy patch of dead guavas and straggling weeds for the past three or four mornings.

The red eye and eye ring of the male make him easy to single out.

Not so simple with females and immatures. But only the immature and the male have so far stayed close enough for worthwhile pictures.

A bonus this morning was the sudden entry of this young Brown Honeyeater (Lichmera indistincta) into the cuckoos' area. Quick picture and the bird was gone. Cuckoos are much less flighty.

Cisticolas among attention seekers

Some days Golden-headed Cisticolas (Cisticola exilis) seem almost to be calling out and demanding pictures be taken. It's not always possible to oblige, since they inhabit scruffy areas of tall reeds, grasses and weedy shrubs, replete with obscuring stems and twiggy branches.

But it is somewhat surprising, in retrospect, how rarely I've managed to capture good pictures of birds with prey. Don't even know if the tiny object (above) from midmorning today is prey or an unwanted remnant of flora that happened to stick temporarily to the bird's bill.

Less inclined to pose nicely for the camera, this Brown Honeyeater (Lichmera indistincta) did slow down for a second today.

But it could take lessons from this Tawny Grassbird (Megalurus timoriensis), surveying the scene last month from a low guava bush.

Finally, also from the back file, Brown-backed Honeyeater (Ramsayornis modestus) shows the others how it should be done.

Honeyeaters enjoy varied diet

Honeyeaters enjoy a varied diet, though not quite so wide-ranging as this series might indicate. Starting with Brown Honeyeater (Lichmera indistincta) tucking into red bottlebrush at the Tyto carpark.

Next, Macleay's Honeyeater (Xanthotis macleayanus) dipping into rotting bananas set out in and around a pig trap.

Last, White-gaped Honeyeater (Lichenostomus unicolor) appears to be seeking an end to iron deficiency. Perhaps the bananas are too sweet.