The common bronze-wing pigeon picked at seeds in the grass right in front of me, oblivious to my approach.
Usually these elegant birds are wary of people and take flight as soon as they come into sight.
You only get a glimpse of retreating plump bodies and a frantic slapping and flapping of wings.
This bird, though, was more trusting, allowing me to raise my arms at close quarters to train my binoculars.
Although the bronze-wings are commonplace in the Waterworks Reserve near my home, it had been years since I studied these birds closely, and a sister species found in the reserve, the brush bronze-wing.
In the bright new light of a summer morning I was bowled over by beauty.
Seeing is believing when it comes to the bronze-wing plumage because the pictures in the bird guides do not do both species justice. It’s a question of refracted light which cannot be faithfully produced in any art form, even photographs.
As their name suggests, the bronze-wings have iridescent bronze-green feathers in their wings, with traces of steely-blue which can be seen in the right light.
The common bronze-wing’s body mixes shades of grey, with a breast tinged pink. The head has a black-and-white pattern running through the eye, with a crown of gold which merges with russet feathers on the nape.
The brush bronze-wing is darker, more a grey-blue with a slightly different pattern on its head. Where the larger common bronze-wing favours glades and open spaces to find a meal of seeds, the latter prefers to hide in thick forest where it feeds on both seeds and fruits.
Both birds are exceedingly shy. Ironically, heavy engineering works at the reserve to reinforce one of its twin-dam walls has enabled the pigeons to become accustomed to noise and disturbance.
To compensate for the noise, I suspect the two species have also started to call more loudly, to be heard above the roar of giant trucks bringing in aggregate.
It is a phenomenon researchers have discovered in city birds in recent years.
According to the University of Melbourne, the silvereyes found in south-eastern Australian cities including Hobart sing louder and slower in urban habitats, compared with rural settings. This is to compete with traffic noise. Ducks in city parks have also been found to quack louder than those in the country.
Ironically, when readers ask me about the songs of the pigeons, which can be described as a beeping or peeping noise, I always say that to my ears the brush bronze-wing sounds like the loud warning beeps of a reversing truck.
This year in their mating rituals the brush bronze-wings in the forest above the reserve have certainly had competition from a source of sounds as far removed from birdsong as you can get ¬ the call of the Mack, Volvo and Scania.