My backyard. Lots of birds here. My favourite place to be is at home among them all :-)
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1. Yellow Thornbill
This is one that I have not yet seen on my property. I was watering my neighbours lawn on New Years' Day while they were on holidays and I spotted this little one above me. Got the camera out just in case it was a new species for me, and turns out it was. Hopefully he and his mates will visit my place at some point during 2020.
Hey twemgirl, welcome to the Challenge! Great to have you with us - and cool to get a different thornbill to kick it off. Looking forward to seeing more of your photos.
Thanks! When I tried to upload a photo a little earlier today it said failed the photo was bigger than 2Mb, so I went through and did screen shots and now it tells me they have to be less than 500kb.... am I doing something wrong? Can you confirm the size limit? Thanks :-)
2. Bell Miner
The Bell Miner only recently started visiting us and so far has only appeared in the bush across the road. I have read that some forests can be damaged due to Bell Miners dominating the environment. The smaller birds like the Thornbills, Pardalotes and Gerygones feed on bugs and larvae on the surface of the leaves of eucalyptus and other trees. If they are chased away by Bell Miners then the trees may suffer as these bugs take over. So far I haven't seen many Bell Miners and the little birds are still around in good numbers.
3. Black-faced Cuckooshrike
One of my favourites, the Black-faced Cuckooshrike. I had a nesting pair recently and I watched as they spent 3 weeks feeding their chicks and working together to fight off predators (I even helped on a few occasions when a Channel-billed Cuckoo was hanging around wanting to take them). They were amazing the way they worked as a team and chased off much larger birds like Currawongs. One day I awoke and found the nest had been half destroyed. The young birds were nowhere to be seen, the parents looked to be taking the nesting material away. A bird ID expert suggested the young were probably too small to have fledged, possibly taken by a predator, and perhaps the parents were constructing another nest somewhere else. I had spent weeks with this little family and was very sad that they didn't survive. I still see and hear the parents so I'm hoping they built another nest nearby and had more success with that one.
4. Leaden Flycatcher
I had to ask the experts to help me ID this one, it looks very similar to a Satin Flycatcher. This is the male. I see him around from time to time, along with his partner.
5. Pied Currawong
The Pied Currawong has a beautiful call, though it filled me with anxiety whenever I heard one during the days when the Black-faced Cuckooshrikes had their babies here.
This photo was taken at Mount Tomah Gardens, the half eaten chip was stolen from my 4yo son, much to his amusement. A very bold Currawong, but I made sure he didn't get any more as I know chips are not good for them at all.
6. Striated Thornbill
I have only recently learnt how to tell the difference between the Brown Thornbill and the Striated Thornbill. In some cases they can look very similar, and around here they all flock together. They seem to come by at the same time, sweep through the trees, stop for a drink, then move on. They often have a bunch of other small birds of different species with them.
7. White-throated Needletail
I have never seen one of these birds land! They are always up high, flying around in circles. It has been very hard to get a decent photo, but apparently this pic was good enough to allow the experts to give me an ID.
8. Australian King-Parrot
This little one is a juvenile King-Parrot. I have a few families around. But there is one couple who will come down when I'm sitting in the garden and perch above my head and warble until I feed them. They don't get fed often, perhaps once a week or fortnight. I put a small amount of wild bird seed (with no sunflower seeds) in a dish and sit with them while they eat. When they have had enough I take the seed away. I get in trouble from my partner for doing this as the seeds create weeds in his garden! In the past I have also noticed rats (from photos on my motion sensor wildlife camera) if I leave seed out. So I'm more careful with it now.
These are the only birds I feed and only if they ask nicely. We have had bushfires within 3km of our property and many of the trees here are not flowering this year due to lack of water, so I think it's ok to help them out occasionally.
9. Australian Magpie
One of the most beautiful Australian sounds is the call of the Australian Magpie. But it's not actually a Magpie I'm told!
10. Brown Cuckoo-Dove
These are probably the most tame birds that visit. Not that I try to encourage any birds to be tame but these ones will sit on the back of the chair at the table with me if they think I have food.
11. Brown Thornbill
The seriously cute little Brown Thornbill. Just love these guys, I think it's their big eyes :-)
12. Brown-headed Honeyeater
Beautiful shy little birds, I recently found an unused nest of theirs, after noticing juvenile Brown-headed Honeyeaters around. Nice to know they chose my place to raise their family.
13. Common Bronzewing
A very common visitor to my garden, this bird has such beautiful colouring. On hot days, if allowed by the other more bossy birds, this one will just sit in the bird bath for ages and soak up some cool water.
14. Crimson Rosella
Not the best photo of a Crimson Rosella. This poor one had quite a few feathers missing, saw him a few days in a row but he hasn't been back recently.
15. Dollarbird
The (Oriental) Dollarbird, named because of the 'silver dollar' pattern underneath the wing. A relatively new visitor to my garden. It often sits up high on a tree or wire where it can look for insect prey. We often see one sitting on a power line in the street when we go out of a morning, only to find it still there in the afternoon. I think they have their favourite spots :-).
16. Double-barred Finch
When I first heard these little ones I thought they sounded like teeny tiny little kittens meowing. I followed the call for ages one day thinking I had a 'Catbird', but nope, it was a little Double-barred Finch.
17. Eastern Spinebill
A very common visitor to my garden. These little ones have quite a loud call for such a small bird. They enjoy the grevilleas and the bird baths on a very regular basis.
18. Grey Fantail
This gorgeous little one is a juvenile Grey Fantail, I love these birds and it's so great to see a new generation here.
19. Little Wattlebird
The little bossy wattlebird. Often tries to chase away the smaller (and bigger!) birds. They aren't around too much and we have plenty of flowering natives to go around, unfortuntely not flowering as much this year, probably due to the lack of rain in the area.
20. Australian Wood Duck
I often see a pair of these ducks fly over my place but on this occasion they stopped and landed in a tree overlooking my son's small plastic pool which had been filled with water the day before. I took their photo and then went inside to let them have a swim in private. I'm not sure if they did but I like to think so.
21. Noisy Friarbird
Another appropriately named bird, can be very noisy, although also often very melodic. I've seen parents feeding their young at my place recently which was even noisier than usual!
22. Noisy Miner
I know the Noisy Miner is a very common bird but I am yet to actually see on one my property, only in the bush across the road. I've heard they can push many other birds out, so I'm quite happy for them to stay in the bush across the road I think.
I took this photo at the park near Richmond RAAF base.
23. Peaceful Dove
These birds have a very appropriate name, they really are very peaceful. Very polite and shy birds, easily scared away by others, however they are frequent visitors to my garden.
24. Red Wattlebird
I have only seen the Red Wattlebird here a handful of times and hadn't seen one in almost a year when I spotted this one a few weeks ago. Was good to see they are still around.
25. Rufous Whistler
This boy and his partner incubated 2 eggs in a nest in a tree above my garage. They have the most beautiful song, I heard them for weeks as his partner built the nest. Unfortunately a couple of days after the chicks hatched I found both chicks dead on the ground below the nest. The parents have stayed around, so perhaps they are trying again in a different location.
Hi twemgirl - great to see all those shots, you've clearly worked it out. Maximum size is 500kB, which is pretty small - but your pics are coming through about half that, so you've got scope to size them a bit larger if you like.
Maybe add numbers to your captions so that we can see your total as it goes up? Any commentary about the shots, birds etc is also interesting.
Love the Brown Cuckoo dove (never seen them) and Brown-headed Honeyeaters :-) Where is your home base, you are seeing some interesting birds.
26. Sacred Kingfisher
One of a nesting pair of Sacred Kingfishers who stop by for a swim quite a lot, especially on hot days. I watched from a distance (with zoom lens) in this pic. Right below him is a shady bird bath full of water. It was close to 50 degrees that day and I was so anxious for him to dive in. I changed the water about 8 times to keep it cool, adding ice cubes as well. He did eventually jump in after this pic. And was back again within the hour for another dip.
I believe they have a nest in a termite mound in a large tree but I'm purposely staying away from it. I've seen too many nestling casualties so trying not to get attached, but also want to give them their privacy. They scream a lot, and I see them dive-bombing for lizards and other small animals.
They have beautiful colouring. Apparently they migrate here from New Guinea to breed and their colouring on their belly fades the longer they are here! They return to New Guinea after breeding where they get their rufous-belly colouring back.
27. Spotted Pardalote
The stunning little Spotted Pardalote who you might never know was around if you weren't familiar with their call, or if you didn't have a zoom lens! Once I learnt what they sounded like I realised how often they visit. They are around all the time. I have neighbours who have lived here more than 40 years who still have never seen them.
28. Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
29. Superb Fairywren
Thank you, yes ok will add numbers. Will put in some commentary too. Was just trying to upload my January pics and then hopefully can upload as I see them with commentary. I live on 10 bush acres backing onto the South-east Wollemi National Park, in Kurrajong to the north of the Kurrajong area. I've recorded 80 native bird species here in the last 2 years, hoping to see them all again this year, and some more :-). We've been planting flowering natives and I have about 8 bird baths so they visit a lot!
30. Varied Sittella
These little guys swarm through and busily look for insects underneath the bark of the eucalyptus trees. Only once have I seen them sitting still (though still regularly shuffling positions by doing somersaults over the branch and coming up underneath the two they want to sit between, unlike the fairy-wrens who jump on top of the two they want to sit between).
In my area, these are the orange-winged subspecies.
31. Variegated Fairy-wren
I first saw these little guys outside breeding season, without their bright colouring. For months I thought I only had Superb Fairy-wrens here, but now I know I have both Superb and Variegated, they often hang out together too.
32. White-eared Honeyeater
These are one of the two most common birds who visit me (along with the Yellow-faced Honeyeater). There was plenty of water around for this one on a very hot summer day. I have read that these birds will pluck hairs out of your head when they are building their nests. So far they have left me alone, but we do brush our dog outside and leave the hair around in case they are interested in using that.
33. White-necked Heron
I have only seen these birds a handful of times. Neighbouring properties have dams so perhaps they spend more time in other people's backyards.
34. White-throated Gerygone
Beautiful little birds with a lovely call, quite loud for their size. I have two White-throated Gerygone nests on my property, they build very solid and safe looking nests, dome shaped with a small hole for an entrance. Once I spotted the nests, I stayed away from them so as not to draw attention to them for predators and also not wanting to scare mum and dad away, but I've seen some juvenile White-throated Gerygones around so I believe they have successfully raised a family here.
35. White-throated Treecreeper
These are fast moving birds, running around tree trunks and branches looking for food. This one is a female, as she has the orange mark on her cheek. I once saw one fly into the top of my chimney late one evening, apparently they often roost overnight in places like that. Perhaps she did.
36. Willie Wagtail
Busy little birds, often looking and sounding angry :-). If you see them up close you notice they have some shades of brown among the black. This is a very blurry photo here. They visit often and I have better photos from last year! Will hope to update this one during the course of 2020.
37. Yellow-faced Honeyeater
This is my most common visitor. They usually come around in large groups, they love the bird baths and the grevilleas and other native flowering plants that we have here.
38. Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo
These gorgeous birds have a distinctive wailing call that you can hear well before they get here. Often in groups of 4 to 8 birds, they stop briefly to eat seed pods from the native bushes. I haven't yet seen them in the bird baths, but they often visit after the rain or on cool days.
39. Yellow-tufted Honeyeater
These gorgeous little honeyeaters have a yellow tuft on each side of their head. The first time I saw them I thought they looked a bit like the Count from Sesame Street. At the moment I have a large family of them around, I think they must have had their babies nearby. After the Treecreepers and Sittellas have been through lifting up bark looking for insects, these honeyeaters follow along to get the sap that's been uncovered.
Loving your photos twemgirl, and thanks for the background - very cool to know these are literally all in your back yard. And what a great location - I've been looking for a bush block backing onto Wollemi/Blue Mountains NPs for a long time, but probably over the other side (Wolgan/Capertee). You must have had some nervous times over the last few months, glad you seem to be unscathed.
Love the sitellas, they are pretty hard to photograph as they never seem to sit still and are often high overhead.
Welcome twemgirl. I am loving reading your comments especially since most of them are in your backyard. Just to let you know the challenge extends beyond you own physical backyard t our backyard Australia. Otherwise I would get about 10 species and be done. Oh the photo with all the Sittellas are amazing! Never seen that many so close together. A few species I haven't seen, so thanks for joining
Thanks! I try not to leave my backyard unless I really have to :-), but if I do and I get some new bird species pics I will add them here, thanks for the tip.
40. Grey Shrike-thrush
Another bird with a beautiful song. These guys are regular visitors to my place, will steal dry dog food if left out. Pictured here is one at Bilpin Cider, snagged himself a red-backed spider by the looks of it. Moments after this photo, we got to watch one of the few local Bilpin koalas who survived the bushfires munching in a tree nearby.
41. Fuscous Honeyeater
I just happened to look out the window this afternoon to see who might be visiting my bird bath, spotted this little one and quickly took a photo. Officially this is species number 81 for my backyard, but number 41 for 2020. This is the first time I've seen a Fuscous Honeyeater here, always a good day when you see a new species :-).
42. Lewin's Honeyeater
I took this photo on a recent visit to Mount Tomah Botanical Gardens. About 30% of the gardens were destroyed during recent bushfires, but this beautiful 'jungle' garden remained untouched. A beautiful spot, and great for birdwatching.
43. White-browed Scrubwren
This is another photo I took in the jungle garden at Mount Tomah Gardens. I do get these little ones at my place so hopefully I can improve on this picture at some point during 2020.
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