Wild Bird Wednesday 548 - Eastern Yellow Robin

Back to the robins for this week's WBW.

The Eastern Yellow Robin (Eopsaltria australis) is probably the most common robin in my part of the world.  Its range is from the extreme southeast corner of South Australia through most of Victoria and the western half of New South Wales and north as far as Cooktown.

It was also one of the robins that proved to be the most tricky to photograph during the 3 day tour!  Which is crazy really!

Anyway, as its name suggests this is not a red robin, but a yellow one.  The 'sticking out from a tree' position is a classic for this species.

This pictures look much better enlarged.  

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Wild Bird Wednesday 547 - Powerful Owl

I'm taking a short break from the robins this week to share some pictures of one of the more remarkable wildlife encounters I have ever had.

While doing some mammal watching north of Melbourne we came across a 'family' party of Powerful Owls (Ninox strenua). 

This species is native to south-eastern and eastern Australia, is Australia's largest owl.  This species measures 45 to 65 cm (18 to 26 in) in length and has a wing span of 112 to 135 cm (44 to 53 in). Unusually for owls, the male is slightly larger than the female on average.  Males have been reported at 0.99 to 2.22 kg (2.2 to 4.9 lb), while females can weigh from 1.04 to 1.6 kg (2.3 to 3.5 lb).  Its generally size and weight put it in the top ten largest owls in the world.

The adult male was feeding the two young owls (who were not the best flyers yet!) a brush tailed possum. (In terms of size, the possum is about the size of a house cat!)

We watched and photographed the owls for a while and then left then alone.  Surprisingly, one of the younger owls followed us along the path and very briefly landed on a low branch near us.  It that decided this was a bad plan and flew off.

All the pictures were taken during brief periods of illumination by torch light.

A really wonderful few minutes with a special animal. 

I would be honest to say, that I took a while to get to sleep after seeing these!

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546 Wild Bird Wednesday - Pink Robin

The Pink Robin (Petroica rodinogaster) is a small - and rather round - looking robin that breed in densely vegetated gullies in moist eucalypt forests or cool temperate rainforests.  This means that there breeding is limited to the South East of Australia, although they disperse out of these habitats after breeding.

Given the type of habitat they live in, they can be a bit hard to find - and having an ear for their call is a great help.  The heavy tree cover in such areas also makes photography a bit of a challenge.

I may have encountered the 'we wave one wing at a time population' of this bird - as that seems a popular stance!

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Wild Bird Wednesday 545 - Southern Scrub Robin

Post 4 in my Robins of Victoria Series. 

WBW for 2023 starts with the Southern Scrub Robin (Drymodes brunneopygia) which is a bird that lack the (often) characteristic red colouration of a bird called a robin.  In terms of 'redness', the best the Southern Scrub Robin can do is the red/brown colour of its tail.

This is a bird of low, dry woodland with a patchy distribution along the southern edge of Australia.  This is very much a ground dwelling species, often preferring to run the fly. As you can see from the pictures, this bird stays low to the ground and loves the cover of bushes.  In a few of these picture you can also see the sequence of the characteristic tail flicks that this species has.

We discovered that this bird was guarding a nest, and we left it alone to do its breeding thing.

According to the bird books, the line through the eye and the pale partial eye ring give the bird a sad look. I am not convinced by this!

As ever, to join in with WBW click the link below.  Lets hope for a peaceful and bird-full 2023 for all.

SM

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