Bird Study

Miss 7 has always enjoyed bird watching, so we have decided to make a sort-of catalogue of all the ones she learns about and photographs. Many of them are from our own property. Here’s the first.

GANG GANG COCKATOO (Callocephalon fimbriatum)

Gender: male

Size: 34 cm

Date: May 2009 (autumn)

Habitat: forests, farms, suburbs.

Other interesting facts: They move around in autumn/winter.

Miss 7 said: We were walking across our driveway and there were these 2 cockatoos staring at us.  He’d been eating the Hakea nuts on a dead tree branch.  He flew across the driveway to a low branch on a gum tree and I got this photo.  He was very close to us, only about 2 metres away. He wasn’t afraid of us. The female flew away & hid. She was more afraid. The male was more curious and was interested in us. He’d probably never seen a person before.

Miss 7 made up this story called ‘The Gang Gang parrots play day’.

* * * * * *

RED-BROWED FINCH (Firetail) (Neochmia temporalis)

Gender: unknown

Size: 12cm

Date: June 2009.

Habitat: dense shrubs, open grass areas, near water/dams

Other interesting facts: High pitched, piercing call.

Miss 7 said: I saw these really early one morning feeding on grassy seeds on our front grass – lots of them. Mummy had to sneak up close to the furniture so they didn’t see her to take the photo.

* * * * * *

EASTERN SPINEBILL. (illusive little creature  -grumble grumble- but here’s its nest).

Gender: unknown

Size: 12cm

Date: late June 2009.

Habitat: dense shrubs, tree tops, near water/dams

Other interesting facts: .

Miss 7 said: We tried to get a photo but it flew away but then we came up to the driveway and there were 4 of them really close in the trees….but our camera went flat (arghhh!)

* * * * * *

Silvereye

Gender: female

Size: 12cm

Date: august 2009

Habitat: orchards

Other interesting facts: Make the a tee-oow warbling song.

Miss 7 said: One day we were at our Grandma & Pa’s house & we saw a silvereye. It was hanging upsidedown off the bottom of a leaf.  Mummy took the photo.

* * * * * *

ROSE ROBIN.

Gender: male

Size: 11cm

Date: june 2009

Habitat: open forests

Other interesting facts: They make a ‘tick’ sound.

Miss 7 said: We were walking over to our Grandma’s house till we stopped at our tree. In the tree there was a rose robin looking for food. And after I took the photo, we started to walk over to Grandma’s again & it flew down onto the ground looking for a worm. I took this photo of it in our tree.

 * * * * * *

 

CRIMSON ROSELLA (Platycercus elegans)

Gender: male

Size: 30cm

Date: early July 2009.

Habitat: forests and farmlands

Other interesting facts: The juvenille has green on its tail. Makes a ‘kweek-kweek noise. Has very rich colours.

Miss 7 said: When I saw these I thought that the rosellas were very beautiful.  I said “listen” and we looked up and saw 2 rosellas in the tree but then Mummy said there was four.  I love to learn about them because they are fun to learn about & I don’t really know much about them. We hardly ever get to see them and its a good opportunity to learn about them.

* * * * * *

 

BROWN CUCKOO DOVE (Macropygia amboinensis)

Gender: we saw both male & female but one flew away before we got the photo.

Size: 38-43cm

Date: early July2009.

Habitat: forest edge, rainforests & thickets

Other interesting facts: Makes a whoop-a-whoop sound and the juvenille had black bars on its chest.

Miss 7 said: I was going to give some weeds to the chooks & I heard something that sounded like whoop-a-whoop & I looked up into the trees & I couldn’t see anything. I heard it again but still couldn’t see anything. I opened my eyes & had a hard look & finally I saw something brown in the tree above.  There wasn’t just one, there was two. They looked at me until one of them flew off – it was the male. I got my camera straight away before the other one flew away. Luckily one was still there. They were on the egde of our forest on our farm.

* * * * * *

WHITE-THROATED TREE CREEPER (Cormobates leucahaeus)

Gender: male

Size: 13-15cm

Date: Sept 2009.

Habitat: forests & woodland

Other interesting facts: They make a ‘whit-whit-whit’ sound. They are very fast hoppers & its very very hard to get a photo. Their colour is very good for camophlage on the tree.

Miss 7 said: We were waiting a long time down on our bush & then a camophlaged bird was hopping up the tree. It was the first bird that we saw while we were down in the bush & my Mummy got the photo because we had to be quick because it hopped so fast up the tree.

* * * * * * * *