Wild Bird Wednesday 121 - Jacky Winter

The Jacky Winter is a small, active and not unattractive Australian Robin.  This is a special group of birds found largely in the Australian region, and despite being called 'Robins' they are not closely rested to the Robins of Europe or America.

Its common name - Jacky Winter - may well have been derived from its habit of singing all winter, even when most other birds have become silent - but the book where I find out this kind of stuff suggests that 'the precise origin of the name is unlikely to be resolved".  Some of its other common names relate to this species habit of sitting on open branches - or their human replacements, posts - these include Post-Boy, Post-Sitter and Stump-bird.

Its scientific name - Microeca fascinans - means 'bewitching similar small bird'.  I like this because I think its gives a bit of an insight into how hard it must have been to name some of these closely related birds when they were first recorded by European Scientists.

The birds I photographed were doing there best to sit in the open, while still remain hidden behind leaf buds and metal wires!

So, here we have a Jacky Winter - a symphony in grey!

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