Bird Watching: More birds from Down Under Volume 2, 1 by MargaretK

MargaretK wrote:
Lee, the Rainbow Lorikeets are native to eastern Australia: a couple of decades ago they were somehow introduced into Western Australia and their numbers have exploded. They aren't aggressive to humans, although they can give a bit of a nip when handled. They are fun loving and gregarious, but to the smaller native honeyeaters and even larger parrots, their boisterous behaviour is overwhelming and they take over feeding areas and nesting hollows.

Lee, the Magpies are a different species to those found anywhere outside of Australia. Only the name is the same. Apparently when the English colonized Australia they thought our magpies looked similar to the Magpies back home and thus named them Magpies. They spend a lot of time foraging for subterranean insects and their beaks are shaped to penetrate into the soil or grass or whatever. It's fascinating to watch them searching for insects below ground. They cock their heads on one side and with their keen eyesight can obviously detect movement and/or sound below ground and jab the beak an inch or so into the soil and come out with a delicious grub of some sort.

Last pic from today is an immature male Red Wattlebird.