I have been seeing a lot of very tiny birds where i saw some superb fairy wrens, but these lot don't have the upraised tail.
They are so small and alight on branches for such a short time, flying around a lot, i haven't been able to photograph. But does that mean they are not the fairy wrens because of the tail?
Quite possibly. There are a huge variety of small birds, and will often form mixed feeding flocks in winter- you can get flocks where there are about a dozen to 20 small species feeding together
Ryu
Canberra
Aiming for DSLR-quality shots with a bridge camera
A lot of possibilities - might be silvereyes, they are small and very active and often in good sized group.
Thank you for this, I think a pair of binoculars would be very helpful at this point.
elizabeth
From your description I'd say Thornbills and/or Gerygones, of which there are a number of different species depending on your location.
LM
Thank you for this, it is very helpful! I have been again frustrated to see these birds flying all around me but be unable to get close enough to see details. Some are very small. I think that they are gerygones, also maybe thornbills as well. Sorry to not mention where it was, Sydney, along a storm canal, and also bushland by a creek.
How do you pronounce gerygones by the way?
elizabeth
Try jerigonees.
I wonder if those small birds are red-browned finches. Do you notice any significant colors on them, Elizabeth? Red? Yellow? White?
To add to Woko's comment, the emphasis is on the RI part of the word eg. je-RI-ge-nee.
LM
Thanks Woko, i looked up the red-browed finch, but no i don't think that any of these birds were them. There are definitely a number of different birds, but they are all mostly different shades of brown and cream or white, nothing very easy to distinguish. Except one that may have very pale yellow or green on its underside.
I also noticed that they would just about tolerate me being quite close as they flew around but as soon as i tried to take a photos they were away.
Thanks Snail, that helps with pronunciation.
elizabeth