Chestnuts go for green slime, others want meat and fish

Taking a spell from slurping up green slime, Chestnut-breasted Mannikin (Lonchura castaneothorax) casts an eye down for more of its favoured food in Tyto. Other mannikins and finches locally don't show similar tastes.

No green vege stuff for Comb-crested Jacana (Irediparra gallinacea). Meat, that's what real water birds want. Plenty of lively small prey on and below the pesty water hyacinth at Mungalla Station today.

In trees above the Jacana's waterhole, Little Black Cormorants (Halacrocorax sulcirostris) jostle for position as they wait for me to quit the scene and let them get back to chasing fish. Talk about the Black Death!

And for fish, here's the blue and white death: Little Kingfisher (Ceyx pusilla) at Tyto this week. Not a reliable visitor so far this year, and a bit blurred about the belly because of pesky blady grass.

Chestnut-breasted beauties one and all

Sitting pretty, Chestnut-breasted Mannikin (Lonchura castaneothorax) at Mungalla Station pauses on hymenachne stem yesterday. 

The bird wasn't flying solo: about half a flock of 500 or so fills the frame. Big flocks, sometimes of almost solely immature birds, relatively common at this time. (Hymenachne, a persistent and highly invasive weed, is loved by birds and enjoyed by cattle.)

Little manny loves green slimy

Nothing a little manny likes in the morny more than a generous slurp of green slime, as shown by Nutmeg Mannikin (Lonchura punctulata) in Tyto yesterday.

Champion stuff also for Chestnut-breasted Mannikin (Lonchura castaneothorax). Funnily, finches appear to have no appetite for pond scum. No accounting for taste. (Such as mine for Marmite, victim of the Christchurch quake tragedies. Toast won't be the same till supply is restored. Vegemite doesn't cut it. Doesn't even spread!) 
Click pix to enlarge