Ahhh…. the Noisy Miner. An absolutely lovely rendering by Linda! While we love all birds, they’re a bit of a pest, really… Never by themselves, always mucking around. I think they’re probably the reason we don’t see the Indian Minah (earlier Linda subject) around our place.
More about the Miner:
* Five Miners Having a Drink
* Blaxland Birds List
Elsewhere:
* Australian Museum
* Calls (Youtube)
Linda‘s lovely drawing doesn’t really show the reason why it’s called a Bronzewing… Have a look under its wings on the video below. They are regular visitors to our water bowl as they need lots of drinks, particularly during summer.
More about the Bronzewing :
* Drinks Hierarchy
* Taking Turns
* Three is a Crowd
* Blaxland Birds List
Elsewhere:
* Wikipedia Entry.
The Wattlebird is of our favourites and regular visitor when the gum trees are flowering, It is named after the wattle (earlobe) not the wattle (popular flowering tree). Linda has again done a lovely job with this drawing.
It has a very distinctive call:
More about the Wattlebird:
* At the birdbath
* Blaxland Birds Listing
Elsewhere:
* Wikipedia Entry
* Red Wattlebird Call
They are a pretty common sight around our place. I still need to add a “water bowl” video , but a still photo is here. Mind you, Linda, when you mention Rosella around here, some people still associate it with tomato sauce…
The little Willie Wagtail was too big for one page in Linda’s sketch book. Or did she want to wag its tail?
This beautiful sketch by Linda can’t do justice to its real talent, the superb mimicry of the songs of its competitors. Turn the sound up and have a listen:
And yes, we’ve got them on video scratching around our “bird bath” . For far away readers, “wij hebben geen tuin” [ we don’t have a garden], but a national park :-). Anyway, video from behind our house:
My full Lyrebird post here or the boring details on wikipedia.
A lovely rendering of the Red-browed Finch by Linda. One of those little birds that never stops and always looks busy. Too busy to have a drink at our water bowl and pose for the camera…
We used to see these a lot when we lived in Kingswood (a while back, …cough). Linda, once you listen to their call you’ll never call them Magpie-larks again….
Magpie-lark in wikipedia
It was so easy for Linda to fall in love with the colours, but what is really striking about these birds is their sheer arrogance. They know they’re beautiful and think they know it all… [this is the couple which breeds in our tree every year]
No love at first sight for the Noisy Friarbird, but Linda did a good job capturing a specimen on her Instagram account . Who needs ugly ducklings when you have Noisy Friarbirds?
The Noisy Friarbird’s call on youtube.
In our backyard and on wikipedia
