Bird Activity: February
A soft 'coo coo coooo' comes from the bottle-brush bush next-to our carport. I remember the Pigeons I have seen flying in and out of the bush for months. I had not looked very hard previously so I hadn't noticed the tiny platform of sticks, only just big enough to hold a mother crested pigeon and her egg. It is an egg no longer.
I stretched up trying to see the nest just above my head. A crested pigeon sat there and a little "Bird with a spike on its head" (as my brothers call them) looked out at me with big eyes. I got a crate to stand on so I could take photos of the crested pigeons. The mother bird shuffled uncomfortably and then hoped off the nest onto a branch deeper in the bush I got a clear view of the young crested pigeon.
The crested pigeon often sounds frightened when it flies and generally that is when it is first seen or heard. As it flaps its wings a distinctive whistling sound is produced. The egg this little bird hatched from would have been small and white, sometimes there are two, but I could only see this little one.
I like to find fallen Crested Pigeon feathers. Their secondary and primary wing feathers have such a beautiful sheen to them, they shine purple and green. The male and female birds look the same. You can see the feather colour in this photo I took a few months ago.
The black and white bird hopped closer and closer watching me out of the corner of its eye. Then made a dive towards the scraps we had thrown out the window. He plucked a bit of bread from the grass and flew off a little distance. Soon the Butcher bird ventured back and took another piece. Some noisy miners flew down too and a magpie.
Butcher birds often follow me as I mow the lawn, mowing disturbs lot of small insects that they like. Then the butcher bird will come surprisingly close to the big noisy mower to get a juicy bug or even a small lizard.
As I sit typing I can hear two pewees (otherwise known as Magpie Larks) calling to one another, as well as: corellas, galahs, rosellas, and some rainbow lorikeets. I can also hear a far chiming of some small bird but I can't put a name to the call.
Have you seen any nests recently?
Can you recognise many bird calls?
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