More birds from Down Under Volume 2

Australian Pelican

WOW. X marks the spot on the Rainbow Bee Eaters.

Margaret, that bee-eater pic is beautiful! You are one of the most prolific photographers here and one of the most talented also.

Thank you, GP. That is such a lovely thing to say. The Bee Eater's colours remind me of the shots you post of the painted Buntings.

Well spotted Mrs Ed. I asked them to pose like that.

This is a shot from two days ago of a baby Willie Wagtail. Its sibling was wary of me (who can blame it) and flew a short distance away.

It was a windy day (typical for Perth) and the clouds were scuttling over. This is the two baby Willie Wagtails together. The grey background preceded the blue one by only 20 seconds.

Here they are with one of the parent birds. S/he was coming and going every minute or so with a delicious insect for the bubs.

Lousy definition, but here's one of the babies getting a feed.

Some of you may recall that the Willie Wagtails are the ones which were harassing the Ospreys. These shots were taken at a different site. They are such brave and utterly enchanting little birds. When I'm at the Ospreys nest, one will often come and land right next to me. And when they're on the ground, where they spend a lot of their time, looking for insects, tail fanned out and flicking from side to side, they don't hop, they run.

This gorgeous female Mountain Shelduck was talking to me. Pity I wasn't able to capture her quack.

Darters are normally very shy birds. This one was surprisingly tolerant of my presence.

They have such a serpentine appearance and a p-r-e-t-t-y scary beak.

Here's a challenge for Resin. Very poor quality to begin with and cropped like crazy. Tiny bird about three to three and a half inches. Maybe a Pardalote? Another shot to follow.

Wow, looks like you had another great day!

Hey, Mrs Ed!!!

Here's the second shot.

Great shots Margaret! I love those Darters and Wagtails!

Lucky you! Very nice all of them! I don't envy you the heat though, but wouldn't mind just a little of it. :)

More great shots Margaret...I just love those Willy Wagtails and that Shelduck looks like a patchwork quilt! You are having some wonderful birding days...thanks for sharing all the great pics you are getting.

Sorry, can't check out Pardalotes, they'll be in volume 13 of HBW, which I've not got yet!

Resin

Thanks folks. I got some (understatement of the year) shots of Rainbow Bee Eaters this afternoon. They'll sit in one spot for a minute or two, but the head never stops looking around for a second.

How beautiful they are. I'd have a snowballs chance of getting a photo of one in flight, but to see the under wing colours highlighted by the sun is a real treat.

Margaret, I never tire of the photos of the birds and your observations. It's one of the first threads I check each morning. I'm getting quite fond of the Bee Eaters. Lee

Domestic bliss.

Hello Lee. They are stunners, aren't they?

Typical Perth weather. Windy. I've included this pic to show the lovely throat colour

Margaret, you do have a most wonderful ability to capture birds in such a natural way. Truly, you should publish. Indeed, they are stunners. Now do remind me, do they, in fact, eat insects? Lee

I've really come to appreciate dead trees since I've been taking photos of birds. We'd be in a bad way if we had to try to capture them in heavy foliage.

Lee, you are too kind. Yes they do eat insects and I've seen them land on a branch with a bee held firmly in the beak on multiple occasions.

One of the things I have to to try to remember when I'm photographing the males is to make sure I don't cut off the extended tail ornament.

Well, if the Africanized bees get much further North, I think we should consider importing some, if not many, to help control them. LOL Thanks for the clarification on their diet. Please be so kind as to con't to post as many people are interested in your pictures. Lee

Oh, the tail ornament is the way to tell the difference. I was wondering. Thanks. Lee

In the few days that I've been visiting this area, this male has cropped (pun intended) up several times, distinguishable by the broken tip on his top beak and a couple of curved dents along edge of the beak.

Lee, the female is slightly less colourful, which is really only noticeable when they're viewed as a pair. She has a shorter tail extension.

As much as I resent the presence of the Rainbow Lorikeets because of the threat they pose to local birds due to their bullying behaviour, I never cease to be amazed at their fantastic colouring. This one was feeding on a Banksia flower.

Margaret, I didn't know the Lorikeets were that aggressive. Are they native. Our native Blue Jays can be intimidating to the smaller birds, esp. around the feeders. And they are quite good mimics, at times, sounding like a hawk. When they make that noise, of course, the other birds, head for cover. Lee

Immature Western Magpie. The Western Magpie is the only species found in Western Australia. These intelligent birds are both loved and loathed. They are friendly and engaging most of the time but during the nesting season, some, and I must emphasize the "some" become aggressive to anyone passing under the nest. Some (with emphasis) dive bomb people, particularly boys, if they can be considered people, as they are known to provoke the maggies, hurling stones and other missiles and acting in other ways to cause some birds to become defensively aggressive. We've given the local family of maggies supplementary treats for many years and are trusted by them and I'm absolutely positive that I could go to a nest without fear of being attacked; not that I intend to do that.

As the birds mature, the beak turns white, except for the tip, which remains black. They eye becomes redder, the male develops a distinctive white saddle back in his third year. As females mature, their backs become a mottled black, some birds being almost completely black backed and others, even within the same family having a splotchy grey pattern.

They are magnificent songsters and I believe they have recently been reclassified as song birds.

Interesting about the Western Magpie. We haven't any magpies this far South as most are limited to the Western states. Only, on rare occasion, are Black-billed Magpies seen in the Eastern part of the U.S.
No, boys cannot be considered human. LOL
During nesting season, the Blue Jays can dive bomb but I haven't seen that in years.
I was noticing the tip of the upper beak being curved slightly downward. Is there a particular reason for that? Lee

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.

Thanks for all the wonderful info. and have a good night. Look forword to more pics. Lee

Stunning shots Margaret! Those Bee Eaters are amazingly beautiful!

Agreed! Absolutely stunning!

Like a little piece of summer to come here!

The American robin also got its name from homesick settlers. I have only seen the black & white magpie in the western US & in england.

Hi Marg, the Wattle birds can be so noisy sometimes also the Channel billed cuckoo at the moment they start so early. Earlier than the Kookaburras.