Bird of the Week - Bernhard Schmitz Photography

Whilst I’m a fairly novice bird watcher, Suki the cat had always a great interest in birds for her own reasons. With the exception of cooked specimens, I tended to ignore feathered animals before I moved to Australia in late 2005 to join Mrs. Schmitz in Sydney. This changed soon after we settled in the suburb of North Bondi where the sheer abundance of colourful and exotic species sparked my interest in avian topics. I started to write down bird inspired observations which I put on this little weekly blog about Australia, Sydney and the feathered and not feathered locals.

Bernhard Schmitz & Suki the cat

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The Orange-footed Scrubfowl (Megapodius reinwardt) or Reinwardthuhn 2012/02/16

This slightly deranged looking bird of the family Megapodiidae is the size of a domestic chicken and as with other megapodes, it sedulously builds large mounds leaf litter and other debris as their nests, a laborious task that would be much easier if they would be capable to use a leaf-blower.

The Lemon-bellied Flycatcher (Microeca flavigaster) or Gelbbrustschnäpper 2012/02/08

One of the paradoxes of birdwatching is the disproportional high number of sightings of interesting species in car parks, and that’s exactly where we first met this nice little Lemon-bellied Flycatcher. But maybe that’s not as unusual as you may think given that they are Australian birds which may share the average Australian’s affinity to their motor vehicle.

The jerked barbecue turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) with corn cobs 2011/12/21

For most turkeys Christmas is not really a date to look forward to but for us humans it is even more so if you try this recipe.

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