My Favourite Bird Photos
Although I’m surrounded by birds here I don’t have the best luck in photographing them. Kookaburras, Fairy Wrens, finches and honeyeaters frequent the garden. There are sometimes cockatoos, black and white and even owls although I’ve never seen one. Occasionally I get lucky and get a good shot but not as often as I’d like.
Today I thought I’d share some of my all time favourite bird photos. I’ve been lucky with swans, they are big enough that even I can’t miss them. Finding one on a nest was a bonus though. Ducks are pretty easy too, they are not scared of us. The Green Rosellas often visited in Geeveston and I see them in our garden here too eating ferns. I was pleased with the shot of the honeyeater who just turned up at the back door one morning and stood there looking in for quite a while.
The Ibis and the Pigeon are both scavengers so they are usually not too afraid if you get near them. If you eat outdoors in Sydney you are likely to have your lunch pinched by an Ibis.
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The honey eater looks like he wants you to come out and play with him 😀 😀 Terrific photos Vanda 😀
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If you could get those au naturale, imagine what you’d get if you fed them! I think that’s what got me started feeding birds. I never got decent pictures of them. Of course that’s not why I’m still feeding them. Now they are a family obligation. We feed birds. Lately, the woodpecker fly to the screen door and cling on the screens squawking at us to put out some more suet!
You have some amazing birds. Fantastic colors. That Honey-eater looks like one of our little woodpeckers. He’d like a handful of seeds, if you please.
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I do want to set up a bird feeder or two somewhere in the garden. The cats don’t go outside so they ought to be safe enough. I’d love to get the little birds, the wrens and finches to stay still long enough to photograph. Naomi bought a birdbath not long ago so we will put that up for summer.
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Buy a very simple feeder. The simpler, the better. You can add others later, but until you figure out what the birds you have nearby like, simple. Also, I’ve come all the way around and back to where I started. Simple feeder are non-denominational. They’ll feed birds, squirrels, chipmunks, little birds, big birds, and medium birds. The problem is that the big birds tend to push the little ones out, so I have feeders that are only good for medium to small birds and a flat feeder that’s a “come one, come all” feeder.
Also, buy a medium to small feeder. Other eaters come out after dark and consume everything before morning. Here, it’s flying squirrels and raccoons, but I’m sure you’ve got something along the same lines.
AND birdseed is NOT cheap. I limit how much I feed them, not because they wouldn’t happily eat as much as I can give them, but because as it is, they out-eat the Duke at least 3 to 1. The little flyers are HUNGRY. And you have some hefty feeders like lorikeets, parakeets, and parrots and they are smart birds. BIG eaters. I owned a lesser sulphur-crested cockatoo. He ate everything including a sofa and an encyclopedia.
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Yes, those big parrots with their strong beaks can eat anything. The Rosella’s like out ferns so they come anyway but I’d like to encourage the small birds. The wrens are often hopping around on the ground, especially if I’ve just raked the leaves.
Of course we have the possums who are nocturnal and eat everything too so a feeder would have to take their weight or be too small for them to use.
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Cage feeders for the little birds. DON’T get anything made with a plastic liner. The parrots will tear it up and probably get sick trying to eat it (they really aren’t very picky eaters!). If you get cage feeders, make sure they have feeding “holes” with perches that are big enough for small birds, but TOO small for larger birds. It’s hard to keep the big guys from pushing the little guys around. Our doves aren’t exactly aggressive, but they are big and heavy and they muscle the little guys out of the feeder, so we have hanging feeders (cage feeders) for the little guys and a flat feeder for the other critters.
You can never feed all of them. It’s too expensive and the more food you supply, the more birds show up. Once word (tweets?) get around that there’s a new free buffet in town, you’ll be astonished at how fast the birds show up.
We tried feeding them food they didn’t like as much, but they didn’t eat it at all and it wound up mostly thrown away. So we buy food they like. We buy smaller cage feeders using a smaller sized feed for the little birds and mostly black sunflower seeds for everyone else — plus any leftover raw vegetables and fruits. It ALL gets eaten. You don’t need to compost if you are a feeder. There isn’t anything left to compost!
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