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.
You may ask yourself why the bird you can see here clearly displays a yellow face despite the fact that its species is named Blue-faced Honeyeater. It wouldn’t be the first time in this series that I got my taxonomy wrong but in this case the reason for the confusing discrepancy between name and appearance is that this individual bird is an juvenile, meaning full-fledged but not quite an adult who sports the distinctive blue face.
I took this shot of a Little Corella on the banks of the Darling River during a lunchtime stop in the town of Wilcannia. That I even dared to take a break in this small township located on the Barrier Highway makes me a very brave man if you believe the reports in the media. Most coverage of this unfortunate place portrays it as rundown place full of riotous residents.
White-plumed Honeyeaters are gregarious birds that are seldom met singly in their native habitat and love to gather around water especially in the hot summer months, much like their human compatriots. It’s not only the dramatically increase of beach goers that signal the begin of the warmest of the four seasons, there are other less obvious and odd signs for the transition from spring to summer in Australia.
