Tag Archives: bird

Eastern Spinebill

Animals, , , ,

Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris

I’m pretty sure this is an Eastern Spinebill, it was sitting in the Macadamia tree in the front yard. I’d not head of this bird before and can’t say I remember ever seeing them around.

The Eastern Spinebill is a small bird, about 13cm – 16cm, it can be recognized by it’s long fine down curved beak. The bird in the photo is a female, males have more distinctive and defined colourings of black, white and tan across their body. They are found on much of the east and southeast coast of Australia and also throughout Tasmania.

Eastern Spinebill
Eastern Spinebill sitting in the Macadamia tree

Now I know what these guys look like they’ll probably be popping up all over the place.

Resources and references

Little Wattle Bird

Animals, , , ,

Anthochaera chrysoptera

You would think the Little Wattle Bird’s name comes from the abundant collection of wattle trees in it’s habitat. But I’m pretty sure it comes from it’s cousin species, the red and yellow Wattle birds. The Red Wattle Bird and Yellow Wattle Bird have prominent coloured wattles on their cheeks. The Little Wattle bird doesn’t have wattles itself, but the name remains.

Little Wattle birds are common in the back yard, they’re often seen eating the nectar from banksia flowers. I’ve not seen them on the bird feeder before, I guess they’re not fans of the native bird seed mix .

Little Wattle Bird
Little Wattle Bird in the Banksia out the back
Little Wattle Bird in the Banksia tree
Little Wattle Bird in the Banksia tree

Resources and references

Brown Cuckoo-Dove

Animals, , , ,

Macropygia amboinensis

The brow cuckoo-dove ( also known as the Slender-billed Cuckoo-Dove ) use to turn up from time to time but since installing the bird feeder out the back it’s one of the most common birds in the backyard! The species is found up the entire east coast and across Papua New Guinea and into Indonesia. Their specific habitat is rainforests and wet sclerophyll forest, particularly at the forest edges, along creeks and rivers. They are also found in regrowth areas and cleared land.

Brown Cuckoo-Dove AKA Slender-billed Cuckoo-Dove
Brown Cuckoo-Dove waiting for his turn at the bird feeder

 sources and references:

Kookaburras attacking the house

Animals, , , ,

A few days ago a pair of Kookaburras started attacking an old steel air conditioner on the side of the house. They sit on a branch and take turns flying right at the thing, hitting it hard with their beaks. It makes a loud clang, sometimes they get their beaks stuck between the slats.

Kookaburras watching, waiting..
These are the 2 kookaburras that have been attacking the side of the house for the past few days. Don’t know why they’re doing it. They’re hitting an old steel air conditioner really hard with their beaks, sometimes their beaks get stuck between the slats

It’s not happened before in the 3 years we’ve been here. Not sure what it going on, I thought there might be something living inside the aircon box that they’re going after, or maybe they’re just sharpening their beaks? They tend to do it at the crack of dawn which is 5am this time of year.

Others have seen this behavior, there are a number of people having problems with Kookaburras repeatedly trying to attack their reflection in windows too.

I’ve been shining a bright light at them, it makes them fly away, they sometimes come back after a while though. Any other suggestions welcome!

These two have been attacking an old air conditioner on the side of our house for the past few days, they take it in turns!