Category Archives: Birds

Birds

The Rainbow Lorikeets are getting bolder

When Vika and I got back from our walk this morning,  our regular pair of lorikeets waited in the gum-tree. I chatted to them for a few minutes, while Vika looked around, trying to work out who I was talking to. I held her up and tried to get her to follow my finger – she is usually very good at seeing things when I point and say look – but not today, despite the squawks and weird noises coming from up in the tree.

A short while later, I had barely sprinkled the seed when the first swooped down to the fence about a metre and a half (or five feet) from me. The second one landed fairly quickly, but hung back.

lorikeet0

 

lorikeet3

They have  a peculiar hopping motion. They thrust their head forward as they skip along. This third photo shows the shy bird hopping lower on the concrete platypuses. (see featured image, at the top of this post)

lorikeet

It wriggled around behind the eating lorikeet, who made room… just. I don’t know which one is female, or if one is female. I even looked at their eyes (you can sex galahs by their eyes) but the eyes on these two looked the same, despite the images turning me into a liar.lorikeet4lorikeet1I moved the camera  a little closer and the shy one flew off. The other flicked his wings a few times to regain his balance, revealing amazing colouring!

lorikeet5When I got tired of taking photos I tried an even closer shot – but that was too much for the bolder lorikeet, transforming into a flying kaleidoscope of colour.  This small annoyance is the price they pay for their seed.

lorikeet6(Nokia Lumia 530 Windows Phone, on auto. Images cropped and reduced)

Have a wonderful day.   😀

 

 

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Birds, On my front fence ...

On my fence just now

Just now, right after I put out the seed, these two galahs arrived. They downed seed like they hadn’t eaten for a week. Luckily, I’d only put out a little.

galahsIn my grapevine moth caterpiller post, Janet and I discussed how you can tell gender. Which set me thinking about the difference between a male and female galah. Nope, not a clue.  If I knew, I’ve forgotten.

Wikipedia says this about our common galah.

Galahs are about 35 cm (14 in) long and weigh 270–350 g. They have a pale grey to mid-grey back, a pale grey rump, a pink face and chest, and a light pink mobile crest. They have a bone-coloured beak and the bare skin of the eye rings is carunculated. They have grey legs. The genders appear similar, however generally adult birds differ in the colour of the irises; the male has very dark brown (almost black) irises, and the female has mid-brown or red irises. The colours of the juveniles are duller than the adults. Juveniles have greyish chests, crowns, and crests, and they have brown irises and whitish bare eye rings, which are not carunculated.

By JJ Harrison (jjharrison89@facebook.com) (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

By JJ Harrison (jjharrison89@facebook.com) (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

Carunculated, I asked myself.   It’s the adjective of caruncle, as in a fleshy, naked outgrowth.  (Something else I’ve forgotten, more than likely!)

And red eyes on the female? Hmmm.

Image from Wikimedia:   A Female Galah (Eolophus roseicapilla) displaying her crest outside her nest in Tasmania, Australia.

The next time these pretty birds are on my front fence, I’ll take note of their eyes.

Have a good day.  🙂

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On my front fence, yesterday.

Sulphur-crested cockatoo on my front fence

Sulphur-crested cockatoo landing on my front fence  (Nokia Lumia 530 windows phone)

Have a good day. 🙂

Birds

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

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