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Birds of Australia
It was a bit tricky cutting the list down to ten, but here they are. |
I know it’s still Friday for most of you, but Saturday is half over on this side of the world so I’m taking the Antipodian liberty of getting this show started
One of the many Cape Barren Geese who were on Maria Island when I was there two weeks ago – raising and diligently patrolling their fluffy little goslings.
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I really like the feathers — especially the way they are overlapped and so finely delineated
It was actually very windy that weekend, hence the ruffled-shirt effect on the feathers, but the light, when it shown, was fantastic, giving everything a watercolor glow.
And yes, they really have an acid yellow-green bill, red legs, and black feet.
I’d post a pic of a couple of the goslings, but it would put me over my limit. Maybe I’ll slip a gosling pic into the Dog Blog. 😉
It looks like he has red rain boots on!
And wore them in the mud.
Are there no ordinary critters in Australia? How unusual and how beautiful!
Are there no ordinary critters in Australia?
Just the people.
Which reminds me — one of my favorite stories about word origins is about the meaning of the word “kangaroo.” It seems some English fellow, in typical English fellow fashion, pointed at a Kangaroo and asked an Austrialian native (in english – very slowly and very loudly, because everyone understands english when it is spoken slowly and loudly) “what do you call that animal?” The native replied “kangoroo,” which roughly translates into, “I have no idea what you are saying.”
I hereby nickname President Bush “Kangaroo” as I have no idea what he is saying.
The thumbnail of this photo looks like a painting — the kind you expect to see hanging on the wall of a hunting lodge!
I really like the way the bird is in front of the brown strawlike grass BUT there is a break in the middle of it that gives a peak into a vista beyond.
I found this image very “painterly” as well (and tried to emphasize those elements).
This is the photo that stayed in my mind.
I really like all the lines of the grasses and feathers. Though this may be a “he,” it seems so matronly at first glance – plump and stately, wearing the proper muted shades of gray with discrete coloration. And then there are the red stockings and black shoes and green nose piece that are so quirky – maybe not so proper after all!
Thanks for all these beautiful photographs.
Dromaius novaehollandiae, at nearly six feet tall, this is not a bird to piss-off..
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Wow! Keres, how did you get this shot?
At the local wildlife park, where they intimidate you into giving them your feed pellets.
Unfortunately, Emus were killed off by Europeans in Tasmania by the 1880’s. The ones in wildlife parks are from the mainland.
There was an attempt to re-introduce what they thought was a similar sub-species to Tasmania’s Maria Island, but they got so aggressive with the tourists that Parks and Wildlife eventually had to take them off again.
What gorgeous eyes!
I have seen one this close in a nature preserve (of sorts) in Texas. It had this look of “why am I here?” that has always bothered me about any captive bird. Such a beautiful animal.
I was this close to an Emu once. Someone’s pet Emu was on the loose and walking along the road. I stopped my car and he/she walked right up the the window. Such long eyelashes!!! Mercy!
This is beautiful, Keres.
I had a friend in Albuquerque whose husband had a habit of coming home from animal auctions with exotic critters. They had two Emu in their front yard, and neither were very friendly.
Also known as the Rose-breasted Cockatoo. They are very social and I usually see them in groups of ten or more.
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He has the same face as my peach-faced lovebird.
I don’t know the specific species, as the parents were out getting more nectar to stuff in its sizable gullet. It looked as if it expected me to do the same.
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What a picture! The texture of it’s feathers is amazing. What kind of camera do you have?
An expensive one. A Nikon D70 digital SLR.
You and Olivia and JimF (?). Yikes! I need one!!!
The detail on the feathers in incredible …
Watching this group, on the shore of the Indian Ocean in West Australia, was a bit like watching a comedy troupe.
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This pelican is the most recognizable, but still not ordinary….very spectacular markings!
These cheeky critters actually have a story. In the early 80’s the owner of a small sea-side town’s fish resturant used to go out fishing in the morning, and clean his catch on the shore across the street from his resturant.
The pelicans started to hang out for the heads and the guts.
When he didn’t show up, they wandered across the road to his resturant. After awhile, people got tired of dodging them on the main road through town, and set up a feeding area for them on the beach. Now a local volunteer feeds them every morning at 8:15am. Tourist, like us, show up to watch and usually donate a little something to the feed bill.
I’ve always had a special fondness for Lorikeets.
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Very pretty. It’s hard to imagine these parakeet look alikes are out in the wild there. Where’s the purple?
The area that looks black above the bird’s bill is really an intensely deep purple. It’s a bit like the color of a hummingbird’s gorget, it takes the light shining on it to really see the color.
I love how Australian bird names are so descriptive – makes them easier to remember.
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and retiring looking bird.
It looks like it was colored by a three-year old.
He could be difficult to find in a Froot Loops tree.
There are Froot Loops trees? How come no one ever told me this?
Next thing you know, someone’ll be telling me that chocolate grows on trees.
Note to self: must move plan for planting orchard up the “to do” list.
If there is such a thing as a Fruit Loop tree, it’s native habitat would have to be Tasmania. It is a real treat to see all the unusual animals you show us.
Those damn kids and their spray paint!
This bird is so gorgeous – closest thing here is our tiny painted bunting. We’ve seen them, but never with the time and stuff to get a good picture. Wow, Keres, you should do a bird calendar. These are simply outstanding!
Stunning!! The feather fairy was having fun with its paint palette the day these got their colors! How big are they? I was wondering how big the lorikeets are too.
Lorikeets range in size from about six or seven inches, like the Purple-crowned (or my local Musk Lorikeet), to amost a foot long, like the Rainbow Lorikeets that mob urban Australia.
The Scarlet-chested Parrot is about eight inches top to tail. It’s in the same family as the Turquoise Parrot and my local Blue-wing Parrot. Collectively they are also known as “grass parakeets” for their habit of fosicking through the grasses for seeds.
Perhaps the most iconic of Australia’s birds. They fly over our place on a daily basis, only occasionally stopping, as this group did.
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So amazing to see them as merely a flock of wild birds. We only see them in pet stores here. They are wonderful!
We have cockatoos living in almost plague proportions in the park opposite our house in suburban Canberra. They are not so plentiful at the moment – perhaps because it’s spring and there are briefly some alternative food sources. I suspect that recent drought years have encouraged them to congregate in the well-watered suburbs.
You’d pay at least $1500 US for a Sulfar-crested Cockatoo in the States. Here people shoot them, and even gas them, as pests. There has to be something wrong with that equation.
That said, they are unbelievably noisy and tremendously destructive, and it’s hard to blame the farmers or orchardists for trying to protect their crops.
In Hobart, one of the best places to go to see parrots is the airport. It has well maintained grassland and well established eucalyptus trees, and the birds are no dummies.
Which makes it even more weird because people smuggle them to here. My friend was telling me about the guy at the airport in line in front of her a few weeks ago who had 3 of them stuffed in his pants. His friend had some strapped in his jacket, but he tossed the jacket and took off running.
These bright and very animated little puff-balls are all about our house. Including one that got in the house last week – who left minus a few tail feathers by the time I caught her and put her back outside.
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We once had a much more sedate Iowa Lutheran Wren in a bird house outside our kitchen window. The little guy was ounce for ounce the noisiest bird I ever heard.
Color was about the only thing sedate about this bird. It hated our cat, who loved to sit in the window just inside where the wren had nested.
Nope, nothing ordinary so far. I love this country!!
Name kinda says it all.
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You have a real talent for catching these birds in very natural poses. It helps to show their character. Wonderful, Keres!
They are all so beautiful! I can’t even pick out a favorite!
I’m going to show these to my kid tomorrow. She’ll just love them!
Lovely work, keres. A tremendous pairing of artist and subject. What a marvelous opening for Fotofair.
Wow! Keres, these are marvelous! What is the name of the very first bird…on your title screen? I agree, this is a perfect way to open the Fotofair. Thank you for sharing.
That lovely fellow is an Eastern Spinebill, sitting on the camilia outside our front door. They are nectar feeders and fast as fast can be. It probably took me of a hundred shots to get that one.
Great collection of fabulously feathered friends. You didn’t identify the little bird in the title post. I like the sharp focus of the bird and the out of focus background.
See the post directly above yours.
Wow. Great birds. You a birder?
Only in the broadest sense of the word “birder.” I love birds and take great pleasure in seeing and photographing them.
Here, serious birders are called “twitchers” — which calls to mind images of ram-rod straight older ladies with strong-boned faces dressed in tweed and carrying binoculars in one hand a a field guide in the other. I hardly qualify.