Wild Bird Wednesday 254 - Hooded Parrot

Just like last week, these pictures are from the sports oval at Pine Creek, Northern Territory, Australia.

These rather magnificent birds are Hooded Parrots (Psephotus dissimilis).   This bird is only found in a limited area of the Northern Territory in Australia - so it won't come as much of a surprise to find out that I had not seen these birds before.  If the truth be told, these were not the hardest birds to find as there were dozens of them on and around the sports oval.

The name Psephotus dissimilis appears to reference how dissimilar the male and female of this species are; however, it has been pointed out that many, many birds show such differences, so this may not have really been the intention.  These birds nest in termite mounds an feed on the seeds of grasses, so they are dependant on open woody areas with (you guessed it) termite mounds.

The paler birds in these pictures are female.

Although these birds are hardly in their natural habitat - sprinkler heads are not native to Australia! - I like the way these images reference both the importance of water in the NT and the impact of humans on Australia's Top End.

As ever, to join in with WBW, just click the blue button below the thumbnails.  With luck I will catch up with comments and such like over the next few days.  SM

An InLinkz Link-up

Australasian Grebe and Water-lilies

Only four more days until a long weekend - focus Stewart, you can make it.

And until I do, here are is an Australasian Grebe and some Water-lilies from Table Top Swamp, Northern Territory, to help me (and you) relax!

Normal service will be resumed in time for WBW!

You can find more shots from around the world at Our World Tuesday.

Wild Bird Wednesday 253 - Grey-crowned Babbler

This week, I have gone back to the pictures I took during my trip to the Northern Territory at the end of 2016.

On the last but one night of the trip we stayed at Pine Creek - a town with a population of less than 700, that still manages to be the fourth largest town on the main road from Darwin to Alice Springs. In the Northern Territory the town are (generally) small and the distances (inevitably) large.

It comes as a bit of a shock to realise that the sports oval in Pine Creek is a bit of a birding hot spot.  There was at least one other group of birders there at the same time as us - we must have made up about 2% of the towns population that night!

One of the birds we had come to see was the Grey-crowned Babbler (Pomatostomus temporalis).  This is a species in rapid decline in SE Australia - so it was great to encounter a group of the almost as soon as we walked on to the sports oval.  These birds often move around in groups - which accounts for one of their other common names - Happy Family.  While I can find no evidence to support this claim, I like to think that the frequent contact calls that these bird make may have something to do with them being called Babblers.  As far as I can tell, these bird are of the sub-species rubeculus - with the rufous breast and the location being the main reasons for this identification.

As ever, to join in with WBW just click on the blue button below the thumbnails.  SM

An InLinkz Link-up

People

I was not really able to spend much time away from crowds when I was in India - half a days birding just outside of Delhi was a quiet as it got - and there were still people about!

These are some of the people who caught my eye as I was wandering about just being amazed at the energy of the place.

You can find more shots from around the world at Our World Tuesday.

Wild Bird Wednesday 252 - Pink-eared Duck

WBW returns to Australia this week, with the Pink-eared Duck (Malacorhynchus membranaceus).  This is a wonderful little duck that is widespread throughout much of Australia, although it is absent from parts of the dry interior, far north Queensland and Tasmania.

This duck is 'monotypic', which means it is the only species in its genus. While you can see how the duck got its name in these pictures, they were taken while I was having some of the best views of this species I have ever had.  Normally I see these ducks at a greater distance, and in that situation the 'pink ear' is not really visible.  In the past this duck was referred to as the 'zebra duck' - and at long range this actually makes a lot of sense

You can also see from the pictures that this duck has a rather strange shaped bill.  The shape of the bill is formed by two fleshy flaps that hang down at the front and side - this feature is referenced in both parts of the scientific name.  These flaps (and associated whiskers) allow this duck to filter feed.

All of these pictures were taken this weekend when I visited a new (for me) hide at Edithvale Wetalnds, which is about 1/2 an hour from my house.  I will be going there again.

When I was there, I discovered an important thing:  if you do not want to look like a complete idiot in public, make sure that the lens hood of your lens does not fall out of the hide window and scare away the ducks!

As ever, to join in with WBW click the blue button below the thumbnails.  SM

An InLinkz Link-up

Beneath your feet

Sometimes it does pay to look down and see what is beneath your feet - these three pictures were taken in India (I was there a few months ago) and suggest to me that we should not always be obsessed with look at the great and the grand.

The Taj Mahal and Fatehpur Sikri are remarkable places, and history shoes that they were built at the behest of remarkable men.  But sometimes little scrap of ordinariness comes though, were the great mass of people leave a little sign saying "You may be big and powerful, but we are here too".

I dont really know what these scratchings on the stone floors mean, but I suspect that they were made by people more like me than the great and the grand they directed the larger projects.

You can find more shots from around the world at Our World Tuesday.