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.
The Red-browed Finch is an estrildid finch that inhabits the east coast of Australia and they are, like his human neighbours, proud home owners, building large domed nests, with a side entrance, out of grass and small twigs. But, in contrast to most human residents of the more affluent areas of the country, these little birds don’t need to worry about mortgage and rent stress or a burst of the so called Australian property bubble.
Some birds are more entertaining than others and the highly active Rufous Fantail is definitely fun to observe. Of course parrots with their spectacular plumage and chattiness are the real show-stoppers when it comes to the avian entertainment value but the Fantails impress with their agility and highly aerobatic and intricate looping flights.
It’s hard to believe but this once widespread species was considered extinct in the wild by 1915, primarily because of their culinary reputation of being an excellent pie-filling.
