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

SEE BIRD OF THE WEEK ARCHIVE >

The Forest Kingfisher (Todiramphus macleayii) or Spiegelliest 2011/12/07

May I introduce you to Mr and Mrs Forest Kingfisher, a couple so devoted to breeding that they would literary risk breaking their neck during nesting season, an outstanding dedication even in the extremely family friendly Australia.

The Wedge-tailed Eagle (Aquila audax) or Keilschwanzadler 2011/11/22

The formidable raptor you can see here is Nonami, a wedge-tailed eagle with three years of performance training. She was flying in the noon bird show at Sydney's Taronga Zoo when she suddenly veered off course, deviating from her prepared flight-path and landed on an 18-month-old boy instead.

The Collared Sparrowhawk (Accipiter cirrocephalus) or Sydneysperber 2011/08/04

If this raptor would need to use public transport in Sydney like we humans do, he would very likely use one of its features, the birds very long middle toe, to “flip the bird” or, to express it differently, give the New South Wales Ministry of Transport the finger.

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