All summer long a grey fantail has sung a lusty, vibrant song from the upper branches of a dogwood tree. The male fantail has only broken off singing to go in search of flying insects, fluttering about the branches like a demented shuttlecock before returning to its favourite perch. The fantail is usually known for a sweet song, a descending melody that seems to drop like falling leaves from the canopy. The fantail in question not only sung this tune, along with the … [Read more...] about The mate who never came
Honeyeaters add a splash of colour
A family of new Holland honeyeaters splashed and played in a birdbath in a neighbour’s garden and as I watched them I realised that these ornamental splash pools represented more than a mere supply of water. Bird baths are sites were birds socialise and build family bonds. They are also places were intense inter-species rivalries play out. Bird baths might be a familiar site in gardens and parks but little is known about the precise role they play in birds’ lives. In a … [Read more...] about Honeyeaters add a splash of colour
Galahs defy the bird-brain tag
“Galleries of pink galahs” goes the song by country music star John Williamson and it was appropriate that as the call of these enigmatic birds rang out over Melbourne I was searching for galleries of my own in the arts district of the city. There was no time for birding on this trip to the mainland, however. It was spurred by the musical Chicago showing there, and a visit to see the latest offerings of the National Gallery of Victoria. All the same three galahs with their … [Read more...] about Galahs defy the bird-brain tag
Menace in a sun-burnt country
In a sunburnt country, Australian birds have always known the menace of fire and over the eons have devised strategies to deal with conflagration. This fire season, however, they have been overwhelmed. More than a million birds are estimated to have died in the infernos spreading through Australia’s southern and south-eastern states since early spring. At least 60 species have been seriously affected by the fires, some of the rarer ones being pushed towards … [Read more...] about Menace in a sun-burnt country
Cormorant eyes frozen in time
The cormorant fixed me with a cold state, as icy as the ice-blue of its eyes. The bird had been drying its wings on a slab of rock, off the coast of Bruny Island, and seemed to resent the intrusion, shifting from webbed foot to webbed foot as the boat I was aboard approached. There was no fear in the cormorant’s eyes, however. More wariness, or curiosity, or even annoyance. Who was this strange creature invading its world, its space out there where Storm Bay merges with the … [Read more...] about Cormorant eyes frozen in time