BIRDS identified at Out of Town Nursery and Humming Garden
* Regular visitors

WATER
Little Black Cormorant*       
Little Pied Cormorant*
White Egret
White Faced Heron*
White Ibis*
Spoonbill
Straw Necked Ibis
Black Duck*
Wood Duck*
Royal Spoonbill

RAPTORS
Little Eagle*
Wedge Tailed Eagle*
Goshawk*
Brown Falcon*

GARDEN
Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
Dollarbird
King Parrot*
Quail
Spurwing Plover*
Crested Pigeon*
Peaceful Dove*
Bronzewing*
Gang Gang Cockatoo
Galah*
Red Rumped Parrot
Turquoise Parrot
Crimson Rosella*
Eastern Rosella*
Pallid Cuckoo
Fantailed Cuckoo
Tawny Frogmouth*
Kookaburra*
Rainbow Bird
Kingfisher
Welcome Swallow*
Blackbird*
Satin Bowerbird*
Brush Wattlebird
Red Wattlebird*
Ground Thrush
Grey Thrush*
Superb Blue Wren*
White Throated Warbler
White Browed Scrub Wren*
Flame Robin*
Scarlet Robin*
Southern Scrub Robin
Pink/Rose Robin
Southern Yellow Robin*
Willie Wagtail*
Restless Flycatcher
Rufous Whistler
Eastern Shriketit*
Brown Treecreeper*
White Faced Treecreeper*
Mistletoe Bird*
Spotted Pardalote
Silvereye*
Fuscous Honeyeater
Noisy Friarbird*
Little Friarbird
Eastern Spinebill*
Red Browed Finch*
Golden Finch
Olive Backed Oriole
Mudlark
Masked Woodswallow
Magpie*
Pied Currawong*
Raven*
Barn Owl
Southern Boobook
Little Grebe
Australasian Grebe
Satin Flycatcher (female)
Horsefield Cuckoo
White Browed Babbler 
White Eared Honeyeater*
Black Fronted Dotterel
Yellow Tufted Honeyeater*
White Naped Honeyeater*
White Plumed Honeyeater*
Crescent Honeyeater
Nightjar
Speckled Warbler
Rufous Fantail
Diamond Firetail Finch
Spotted Turtle Dove
Shining Bronze Cuckoo
Brown Headed Honeyeater*
Grey Butcher Bird
Little Corella
Bar Shouldered Dove
Buff Banded Rail
Black Faced Monarch
Blue Faced Honeyeater
White Winged Chough*                                               



Whoever invented the phrase “birdbrain” knew not of which he spoke…I heard about some research on the intelligence of Crows done in America where the birds were presented with the problem of a meal worm in a test tube that was too deep to get. It took an average of 35 seconds for the birds to fashion a piece of wire into a tool to reach the grub.

In a variation on this experiment the birds were presented with a meal worm floating on water in a test tube but too far down for them too reach. The only thing in the cage was gravel. The birds picked up the gravel & put it into the test-tube until the water level rose high enough for them to reach the grub.
Wild Crows in Japanese cities have learned to use traffic to get into hard nuts. They drop a nut into the traffic near a pedestrian crossing & when the lights change they walk with the other pedestrians & pick up the nuts from the broken shells. Magpies recognise themselves in mirrors & can use the reflection to remove a sticker that they cannot otherwise see. Pigeons in London have learned to use the trains to travel from one station to the other (i.e. one food source to the other) with minimal time & effort.
On the other hand Doves are just dumb.

There are various categories of bird…there are the birds that eat your garden..Bowerbirds…There are the birds that dig up your garden & put it on the path, Chooks,
Choughs, Blackbirds.

There are the birds that eat your friends, Goshawks, Falcons, Currawongs, Magpies, Kookaburras; even the lovely & benign-looking Grey Thrush, (which has one of the most delightful songs in the bush), is an unrepentant egg & nestling thief…little birds mob it as soon as it enters the garden in an all-species militia…. Last year we had a male Superb Blue Wren with a damaged leg,…(probably from a joust with a rival or a mirror…they can get really heated). It was getting about just fine & we spent a couple of weeks giving him some extra lovin’…they adore finely grated hard cheese, & will eat millet from the Finch Mix. So things were looking good for him, even if he wasn’t going to be “Boss Cocky” anymore. But low & behold a Grey Butcher Bird turned up at morning tea with our wren hanging from it’s beak & proceeded to bash it on the handrail of the verandah, where we had our feet up & to rip out & scatter the fine blue feathers, hither & thither…It’s tricky to know how to feel… we were saddened to lose our wren…but then we hardly ever get to see a Grey Butcher Bird up close & observe him at his trade!

There are the honeyeaters that hover like tiny angels at the flowers sipping delicately at the nectar…there are honeyeaters that grab the flowers by the stems & drag them
to the ground & suck the life out of them.

There are, of course, many other categories of birds…in fact it wears me out to think about it…but some of our favourites include:

Peaceful Doves …not very peaceful (calling constantly) & not very bright…at times during the year they gather here in their dozens & dozens…you are constantly aware of their doodle-doodle-coo call. The courting season is one of their gathering times. You can watch a female “going shopping”…wandering down the gravel paths, seeing what’s available followed by a male…or sometimes a bevy of males, doodling & curtsying  a frenzy of pre-coital courtesy. In the time honoured strategy of females everywhere, this goes completely unnoticed. I’ve seen a male fall from a tree trying to convince his lady-love of his honourable intentions. Not born architects, they think that 2 crossed sticks in the fork of a low twiggy bush is plenty of infrastructure for a nest. They then lay their eggs & have to keep their legs crossed until the nestlings mature to stop them falling to the ground in the slightest breeze. How come they have thrived for millennia…obviously “smarts” isn’t intrinsic to their survival.

Bronzewings…for years we didn’t have any. We would see gatherings of them on dusty clearings at the top of the hill…& then eventually an occasional visitor would drop in & then when they learned that the food was laid on here they moved in. We now have a score or more permanent guests. Just when they learned to play the didgeridoo I”m not sure, but that’s what they sound like. Almost wiped-out by Early Settlers because they apparently made a tasty substitute for spatchcock or pheasant, their defence of sitting still until the last minute when approached may have  worked in pre-Cook days but was a poor strategy when faced with the gun. Aboriginal people would send out children with toy boomerangs & stones to hunt them, but of course this did not make a huge impact on numbers.

Mind you they might look sweet & defenceless but come feeding-time they are quite capable of standing up for themselves. Whilst basically shy & retiring & not heavily-
armed with beak or claws they will nonetheless brook not opposition. Outnumbered by Choughs, with their long sharp beaks & flashing red eyes, or Galahs with their hooked bill & ultra-sonic screech the Bronies employ the secret weapon…the Whack-Attack. Firstly, as a warning, they raise their wing above their bodies, puff themselves up & start a sub-sonic booming noise…if this is insufficient,  they will rush sideways at their opponents hitting out with their muscly wing. This quite often does the trick…if not, the Bronzewing is surely one of the most stubborn of birds & while it might not get to feed, no-one else will either.