Birds (feathered ones)

[xkxlxm]

I would like to start a thread on birds ... sightings, stories etc ... mainly on our native birds but I guess it would be unavoidable to mentioned the introduced pest species. I am very much an amateur bird watcher.

[GasoLane]

Yeah, why not........... But if you go Birding in my backyard all you get is mobs of Lorikeets and Sulphur Crested's ............ with the occasional Currawong in Winter

[Citroënbender]

Originally Posted by xkxlxm

I am very much an amateur bird watcher.

I don’t hide to spot them like a twitcher, but will follow a chorus of noisy miners to see what unusual bird (or possum) they are haranguing. I like the various owls and frogmouths particularly. As my neighbourhood is steadily depleted of trees, more species are coming to visit.

[Tonz]

we have a youtube channel and facebook page regarding Osprey

https://www.facebook.com/portlincoln...7UObBNW3FeMfkw

through knowing the right people the local group has trackers on 3 different birds and just received approval for 4 new ones this season.

[asagaai]

In our previous house in Newcastle, we had a bush house backing onto reserve with owls, frogmouths, Kookaburras, Rosellas, magpies etc.

Then moved to our clifftop house on Lake Macquarie, and we now have rosellas, kookaburras, sulphur crested Cockatoos, kites, and massive white bellied sea eagles, the eagles sit on a treetop on edge of cliff on edge of lake and other birds go beserk.

Anyway, my wife and I went on a gamepark drive in an open jeep in South Africa, and the guide said - anyone here birders. He was an avid birder, and driving along shouted excitedly "theres an X" and there was a tiny scungy little brown bird the size of an australian minor. And he kept calling out about birds and they were grey, dull brown, and tiny.

And my wife muttered to me- "he should come to Australia, now those are birds"

[xkxlxm]

Noisy miners: it's only in the last couple of years that they have arrived in my area. On the ABC two or three months ago I saw a bird show; at a park/reserve in the St Kilda area they had a dead pardalote which they fixed to a tree branch, played a pardalote recording and the dead bird was swamped by noisy miners ...

Several months ago in the back yard there was a dead kingfisher - killed by noisy miners??? (I have never seen a kingfisher here before/after that and the only time I have ever seen another was on a footbridge hand rail across the Darebin Creek in Alphington ten [?] years ago.)

[Tonz]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-...coln/101343128

[Charliewool]

Not native here…
But regular visitors at our last place







Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ford71V8]

Our eldest boy has a similar fascination with birds, and they to him.
Daughter and son look after a special needs boy once a week and they walk the same park. Birds come to him. She showed us a video of him only a few nights ago, handfeeding a kookaburra which flew down to sit by him. Apparently this happens with a few maggies also.
He moved out (flew the coop) and one of his first things to purchase was a birdcage and put a budgie in his lounge.
His grandad used to be similar....my wife tells a story of when she was small and watching their cockatoo walk behind her dad all the way to the local shop.

[roKWiz]

Great thread, being an avid mountain biker, bird watching is second nature along with native, plant and animal spotting. The Slater's bird guide is always in our Camelback's marked out with dates as to what we see.

One we are desperate to see in coming months is the rare Regent Honeyeater which will feed and nest only in Ironbark forests between Wagga and Chiltern.
Early Spring is the time they start to flower which bring them in.

Little red cap Firetails are enjoying the dying Cootamundra Wattle bloom atm.

[Charliewool]

Originally Posted by roKWiz

Great thread, being an avid mountain biker, bird watching is second nature along with native, plant and animal spotting. The Slater's bird guide is always in our Camelback's marked out with dates as to what we see.

One we are desperate to see in coming months is the rare Regent Honeyeater which will feed and nest only in Ironbark forests between Wagga and Chiltern.
Early Spring is the time they start to flower which bring them in.

Little red cap Firetails are enjoying the dying Cootamundra Wattle bloom atm.

Serious bird watchers are an amazing species, themselves…
We had two lots of bird watching renters stay with us in Costa Rica. Firstly a Canadian couple, secondly 3 Germans..
The Germans paid 2 weeks rent and informed us they were venturing up into the rain forest mountains to search for the elusive Resplendent Quetzal…
They disappeared for days! They also had more camera gear than Channel 9!
I reckon both lots of renters only spent 1/2 their time actually sleeping at our joint, curled up in swags up the mountains the rest of the time!
To travel THAT far, and pay ALL that money, simply to take photos of some rare bird… THAT is bordering on an obsession?

https://www.misticopark.com/blog/cos...-in-costa-rica

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by Charliewool

Serious bird watchers are an amazing species, themselves…
We had two lots of bird watching renters stay with us in Costa Rica. Firstly a Canadian couple, secondly 3 Germans..
The Germans paid 2 weeks rent and informed us they were venturing up into the rain forest mountains to search for the elusive Resplendent Quetzal…
They disappeared for days! They also had more camera gear than Channel 9!
I reckon both lots of renters only spent 1/2 their time actually sleeping at our joint, curled up in swags up the mountains the rest of the time!
To travel THAT far, and pay ALL that money, simply to take photos of some rare bird… THAT is bordering on an obsession?

https://www.misticopark.com/blog/cos...-in-costa-rica

Funny aren't they.
Down at Glenrowen, the local Caravan park gets booked out when the (rare??) Torquise Parrot appears.
I stayed there a couple of times watching these strange types, dressed in fatigues, laying on the ground with mega dollar camera's clicking away at this little bird.
Problem is you can drive out the gate and nearly bowl hundreds of these stupid birds as they always want to fly across the path of your vehicle.

Chilterns accommodation is the same with the previously mentioned Regent Honeyeater.

[Citroënbender]

It’s good that people like yourselves (@Charliewool) are effectively supporting “citizen science”. Who trusts a government report on wildlife - it’s odds on to be skewed in favour of something undesirable?

[xkxlxm]

I was just looking at a grey butcher bird in a neighbour's tree. They must be related to kookaburras (?). They have an over-size beak (but with a hook on the end) and they will sit in a tree for a while, just watching. Often alone, sometimes in a pair.

This morning in the park I was watching a grey fantail. There was also another grey bird - not sure what it was - and a wattlebird came along and chased one or both away. Wattlebirds are a bit aggressive.

I can hear some noisy miners outside right now.

[Citroënbender]

I think butcher birds are more closely related to magpies than the kingfisher family.

[stock1991]

it's interesting our magpies aren't actually magpies just named after the European bird because of the colour. Our maggies live in a communal society with an alpha pair who are the only pair allowed to nest and lay eggs with the other members contributing to raising the one nest. Generally when you see a magpie getting beat up by a mob of magpies it's because they started getting frisky and need be brought back into line.

Butcher birds are cool, so called because their habit of catching lizards or insects and impaling them onto a twig for later consumption, bit like a butchers shop.

I read the comments about the noisy minors and they are nasty, the orgainised crime family of the bird world. More than once iv'e been watching a bird of prey getting harassed by a noisy minor only for it leave and then return with a magpie in tow. I am convinced they went a recruited "muscle"

[asagaai]

So I climbed Ben Lomond in Queenstown New Zealand, a 1748 metre peak.

Here is a shot at the summit on the sunny summer day I climbed it.

There were these large very clever parrots up there. Here is the big daddy.

There was this annoying teenager who became obsessed with the rubber badge on my Planet earth day pack. When I got back down I realized he had taken chunks out of it all the way around the edge of the badge....

[xkxlxm]

On a morning walk today, through the park to some shops and back, seen or heard: magpie lark, magpie, eastern rosella, sulphur crested cockatoo, wattle bird, rainbow lorikeet, galah, currawong, crow/raven, kookaburra.

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by asagaai

So I climbed Ben Lomond in Queenstown New Zealand, a 1748 metre peak.

There was this annoying teenager who became obsessed with the rubber badge on my Planet earth day pack. When I got back down I realized he had taken chunks out of it all the way around the edge of the badge....

Isn't that a Kakka, spotted a large colony on Steward Island when I was there.

Great pic.

My mornings spot, was a family of grey crown Babbler and the usual group of white winged Choughs.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by xkxlxm

On a morning walk today, through the park to some shops and back, seen or heard: magpie lark, magpie, eastern rosella, sulphur crested cockatoo, wattle bird, rainbow lorikeet, galah, currawong, crow/raven, kookaburra.

Currawongs? You must live near the snowy's.

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by GasoLane

Currawongs? You must live near the snowy's.

Currawongs are everywhere in cities Gaso. See plenty in $ydney.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by roKWiz

Currawongs are everywhere in cities Gaso. See plenty in $ydney.

Hmm, I thought they just came down our way every winter as there was no food in the high country.

When Springtime comes they disappear.

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by GasoLane

Hmm, I thought they just came down our way every winter as there was no food in the high country.

When Springtime comes they disappear.

Pretty much what they do here, I have a mother protecting her nest above the Louisville atm and she is as aggressive as a magpie.
Even see them down around Darling Harbour.

[roKWiz]

Speaking of regional differences for birds.

Last time I was working in West Wodonga, across the road from me was some loud Rainbow Lorikeets something very common in $ydney but have never seen one south of the Murray until then.
The migratory Common Cole (wooo-it) you always hear approaching Summer in NSW is something rare in Victoria but a couple of years ago while standing waiting for a train at Violet Town station, I hear wooo-it.

Does $ydney have Blackbirds scratching around their gardens ? Can't say I've ever seen one there.

[Citroënbender]

Never seen one up here.

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by Citroënbender

Never seen one up here.

Funny buggers to watch and not as bad as Brush Turkey's.

[.:4:.]

I used to work in a twin tower setup in chatswood. So 2 buildings with a common basement and foyer 21 storeys high.
There was a peragrin falcon living on the roof of 1 tower. Over the years it had offspring. But it lived on 1 tower but ate on the other. So doing lightning inspections on the roof of the tower it ate on, heaps of carcases and feathers etc. Also heaps of rubber rings with numbers on them. The lightning protection guy picked up a bunch and told me what those are. They were from homing pigeons. So he took them and called it in, apparently its illegal for a person to harm a homing pigeion, but no laws towards predatory birds eating homing pigeons.
On the roof where the falcon lived. Doing inspections up there. It would inspect. So swoop but stay 3 to 5 meters away. Do that for 2 minutes then sit and watch. This thing had big feet and scary tallons.
The only time i saw that bird aggressive towards people was a video of the window washers taking the bmu over the side of the building it lives on and it was dive bombing the bloke in the cradle.
Only funny story about that bird, so the top floor of the building it eats on was vacant. The lady incharge of leasing was telling me she had a very interested client untill the falcon popped its head up on one of the outcrops with the head of a rosella in its beak.

[xkxlxm]

In the Melbourne CBD there are a couple of falcons up on one of the tall buildings; there might be a camera view you can find on the net.

https://www.facebook.com/MelbourneCBDPeregrineFalcons/

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by .:4:.

. This thing had big feet and scary tallons.

Wait till you see a Wedgetail Eagle up close.

[.:4:.]

Originally Posted by roKWiz

Wait till you see a Wedgetail Eagle up close.

Ill pass on that. Its bad enough when i peragrin falcon just wants an inpection. Im no avion expert, but i beleive when the dive bomb another bird like say a homing pigeon, theyre one of the fastest in the world.
My apprentice at the time, knowing about the falcon and seeing about from inside refused to go on the roof with the lightning protection guy and myself. But after we came down was showing me videos off the youtube of eagles vs mountain goats. Food chain stuff really. Mountain goats are heavy, but the eagles drag them off the cliff face and drop them. Its savage but interesting about the adaptive hunting method.