Wild Bird Wednesday 656 - Feeder Birds

During my trip to the UK at the start of 2024 I was reminded of just how popular bird feeders are in that country.  In Australia they are much less common - and in some ways the debate about 'are feeders actually a good idea' is still active here.   What ever the truth if the matter in this debate, one thing can be said for sure - that even if I did put out UK style feeders and food, I would not get that many native birds using them.

I visited a number of RSPB reserves on my trip and bird feeders were a regular and popular features.  These pictures are of some of the birds that I saw around the feeders at Titchwell.   I have chosen these as they are species that I used to see on a near daily basis around the house I grew up in.

Female Blackbird

Female Blackbird

Dunnock - or Hedge Sparrow

Chaffinch

Chaffinch

Great Tit

Wood Pigeon

Sitting, watching these birds was very nostalgic.  My next trip to the UK should yield some of the visiting spring migrants.  I'll have to brush on my (very rusty) warbler identification skills!

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Wild Bird Wednesday 655 - Shy Albatross

The Shy Albatross (Thalassarche cauta) is the most frequently see albatross on the Pelagic Trips I have done from Tasmania.  Despite that, as a species it is still listed as Near Threatened, which means we need to keep a keen eye on this species. 

Shy Albatross can sometime be seen from the land in my part of the world, and one actually showed up at Werribee Sewage works this week - although I was not there to see it.

These pictures are a sequence of a single bird approaching the back of the boat on a trip from last year.  I have to say that they are one of my favourite birds.

As ever to join in with WBW click on the link below.  Cheers  SM  (PS: please send cooler weather!)

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Wild Bird Wednesday 654 - American Oystercatcher

The American Oystercatcher (Haematopus palliatus) is sometimes called the American Pied Oystercatcher.  Pied Oystercatchers - ie black and white oystercatchers - are found in many places around the world and the taxonomy of these birds is rather contested.  In many cases I think that geography is about the only way to tell the closely related species apart.

In other words if you see a Pied Oystercatcher in America, it's an American Pied Oystercatcher! And when you see a remarkably similar Pied Oystercatcher in Europe, then it's a different species - the Eurasian Oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus).

About the only difference between these two species is that the American Oystercatcher has 'blackish brown dorsal plumage' while the European Pied Oystercatcher is more uniform in the black colour.  Such distinctions would probably drive people to distraction in the field.

These birds are feeding on the beach at Cayo Coco in Cuba.  This is an interesting, but not remarkable record for this bird and I have been told (thank you David!) that there is a single breeding record for this species in Cuba.

This shot seems to show the blackish brown dorsal plumage

This shot seems to show the blackish brown dorsal plumage

This shot seems to show the blackish brown dorsal plumage

The bird in these pictures with the darker beak is a juvenile.

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Cheers and I hope all is well.  SM

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Wild Bird Wednesday 653 - Grey Plover

The Grey Plover (Pluvialis squatarola) is a large plover that breeds in Arctic regions. It is a long-distance migrant, with a nearly worldwide coastal distribution when in its non-breeding state.  This bird may be better known as the Black-Bellied Plover to birders in the Americas.  The name Black-Bellied is only really descriptive when the birds are in breeding plumage.

These birds were photographed at Cayo Coco on the north coast of Cuba - so they are in their non-breeding plumage.

You can see a bird extracting a long, thin, red worm from the sand.  The worm snapped as the bird was pulling and the 'bird-end' of the worm coiled around its beak.  Once it had snapped, it no longer looked like a decent meal!

I have to say that the heat haze on this day was rather bad - but it was great to see these birds.  

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Wild Bird Wednesday 652 - Laughing Gull

The Laughing Gull (Leucophaeus atricilla) is a medium-sized gull of North and South America. These birds were photographed in Cuba.  Unsurprisingly, tts name derives from its laugh-like call. Like many other gulls it is an opportunistic omnivore and scavenger. It breeds in large colonies mostly along the Atlantic coast of North America, the Caribbean, and northern South America. 

These birds were loafing about on the beach at Cayo Coco, which is on the north central coast of Cuba.

The Laughing Gull  is 36 – 41 long with a 98 –110 cm wingspan and weighs between 200–370 grams> None of these birds is in breeding plumage, where there would have a black head. 

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Mammals on Monday 13 - Grey-Headed Flying-Foxes

The Grey-Headed Flying-Fox (Pteropus poliocephalus) is a large bat - technically a mega-bat - that is native to Australia. 

The Grey-Headed Flying Fox is endemic to the south-eastern forested areas of Australia, principally on the coastal side of the Great Dividing Range. It is Australia's largest bat, with the adult wingspan reaching up to 1 m and weighing up to 1 kg.

These pictures were taken in the Botanic Garden in Melbourne - which is pretty much in the middle of the city.  These bats are at a roost site - which is rather smelly and noisy as a result.  Their breeding range has been moving southward in recent times and it was not until the 1980s that Grey-Headed Flying Foxes routinely visited Melbourne, with a permanent roosts only established since the 1990s. 

A great animal to see on my walk around the Gardens today.  SM