Lots of Noisy Friarbirds playing around this afternoon. Flying back and forward while watched by Laughing Kookaburras and Pied Butcherbirds.





Nearly got a Blue-faced Honeyeater! Terrible photo follows.

Those Friarbirds have some wicked looking beaks on them. Neatly colored birds.

Gleni, you sure have some very interesting birds in your part of the world. I love the honeyeaters, some are so colorful!

I did remember seeing a Carolina Chickadee here once so I went searching through my old laptop photo's ... this is from October 2011, my first and only sighting ever of the cute chickadee:

Looks wicked, Ann, but it is just for putting the head deep into flowers and fruit and for not getting any feathers clogged and matted. They have large brush tongues like those of lorikeets and woodswallows for collecting nectar.

Lovely to see them ... to see all of the birds.

And learning things about them too!

Glen, cool birds in your neck of the woods.

Some small birds if you can see them. Two White-breasted Woodswallows in the sky. They actually aren't related to swallows are martins. The larger one in flight on the right is a friarbird.


This is a Grey Fantail. They have just turned up from the mountains for winter.


Blue-spangled Drongo high up in a tree. Can always be identified by its fish-tail. Drongo is a derogatory term in Strine - which was a name of a racehorse. However, the bird name is of a different origin and is Malagasy. This drongo is a black bird with iridescent blue spangles.

The Drongo is really pretty especially with that interesting tail.

Glen, do I see Australian pines?
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/st129

I love them so much. I know the sound the breeze makes blowing through them like I know the back of my hand. Spent many good times building forts in them and taken many a spill when running through them only to be cushioned by the thick layer of needles dropped over years & years.

What are you doing up so late? Having trouble sleeping?

Ann, I fell asleep in the chair. Yes, that is them - Allocasuarina and this one is A. littoralis, usually called Black She-oak. It is the favoured food tree of the endangered Glossy Black-cockatoo, which nests on the island.

I have many she-oaks here both male and female. The sound of the wind whispering through the needles is wonderful. I think the word susurration was specially coined for them.

I often wonder how the word came about. I reckon susurrus is onomatopoeic and the romans coined it as they listened to the whispering of the trees while lying in sacred groves.

This tree is male I think.

A couple of these guys were giving me a fly by this morning. Guess I got too close to their bird house for their comfort. Wrong lens on the camera so I had to crop and I don't see the nice shiny blue green back as well as I did taking the photo.

Tree swallow

Hurry! my local back yard Catbirds have returned. Saw them for the first time this spring today. I do love Catbirds. And they usually nest in the yard and raise babies.

I love the Catbirds and wish we had them year round but they only visit here during winter and head back north in mid to late April. I found a dead Catbird on the sidewalk last week ... it had apparently slammed itself into the sliding glass doors of our back bedroom. Even though the tint keeps the stifling afternoon sun from heating up the room I hate it because of the issues of birds flying into the glass. I need to try to find some decals that will work outside in the weather!

I started a new thread for May ... come on over and share your pictures: The thread "May 2014 Backyard Birds" in Gardening for Butterflies, Birds and Bees forum

Oh poor bird.

Yep, we get the Catbirds in the summer and you have them in the winter. I do love the fact that they nest here. But they are my favorite bird and I am always happy to see them.

The Gray Catbird is a really pretty bird. At our other house my backyard neighbor had Loquat trees (Eriobotrya japonica) all along the fence line between our properties and the Cat Birds loved the fruit in spring but they also liked mango and papaya bits that I'd put in the feeders and they ate suet too!

April 2010 .................................................. March 2011 ...................................... April 2013

So this is the kitty bird. Lovely.

Thank you Glenn!