Australian Birds

The following photographs have been sent to me by a friend, Ted Garrett, who lives in Blackbutt, Queensland. Some background, Ted Garrett and I were apprentices at Murphy Radio, WGC in the early 1960's. We haven't seen each other for over 40 years but have been reacquainted via the Friends Reunited web site. Ted has now retired and takes a great deal of interest in Australian wildlife. These photos have been recently taken in and around his garden and they are very colourful.

Ted writes "We heard bird noises coming from the area of our kitchen cupboards and decided to investigate. We eventually looked under the house which is on stumps about 30cm above ground at the front and 1.2 metres at the back. There is a hole under the kitchen cupboard where a drain used to go through before we renovated and while we were watching a Pardalote flew up into the hole. A pair of Pardalotes were building a nest in the plinth area between the floor and the bottom of the cupboard. We watched them coming and going many times over the next week or two as they collected materials for their nest. They seem to be quite an inquisitive bird and occasionally sat on the veranda rail to check us out. My picture is of the male sitting on a 100mm diameter ball at the top of one of the veranda posts so this gives a good indication of size. They are listed in the book as being about 8 to 9.5cms. The pardalote is fairly common throughout the East Coast of Australia and normally nests in a hole in the banks of rivers or dams."

P.S. Ted adds " We can now hear the young pardelotes when we are in the kitchen. Sounds like there are at least 2 of them and the parents are quite busy feeding them." added 15th November 2006.

N.B. Click on the photo to enlarge, use back button to return to thumbnails. Photos added November 2006 all by Ted Garratt ©

Ted sees these birds frequently in his yard. The picture of the Yellow Faced Honey Eater was taken in a bush near his dam. The Sacred Kingfisher - there are a pair of these nesting next door to him and are often seen in a bush at the back of their house.

The Welcome Swallow (perched on a Satellite receiver dish) - have built their mud nests in the rafters of his car port and have been with them for three years now. They really seem to enjoy flying - just for fun! They have already had their young this year and he sees all six of them most days. They are very protective and dive bomb intruders while they are nesting. They do the same to any birds they think might be a threat and can frequently be seen trying to see off the Kookaburras when they perch too close to their nests.

Ted writes "They have a nest next door and were looking for nesting materials. There was a macramé hanging basket on the back veranda and the friarbirds were picking at the wool to line their nest. We took the hanging basket down and put some scraps of wool on the veranda railings which as you can see from the l.h. picture proved to be a very acceptable substitute.
The Noisy Friarbird is 25-29cm. Has an upright knob on the bill and the entire head is bare skin except for tufts of feathers on the eyebrow and chin. It is found throughout the entire Eastern coast of Australia as well as parts of Victoria.

The nest is in the neighbours property about 10 metres from our boundary fence - we have been watching these birds from our veranda for some time now. If you look closely you can see a strand of wool in front of the nest - this is wool they collected from our back veranda. As I write this I can look out of the window and see the nest where parents are currently feeding the chicks. We hope to see the chicks take their first flights in a day or two."

Ted writes "This Male King Parrot is a regular visitor and usually raids the tomatoes - he seems to prefer them green. After having his fill of tomatoes he moves onto our bird feeder to top up on a feed of striped sunflower seeds. He is quite tame and just about takes food from Kim's (Ted's wife's) hands.

The King Parrot is a long tailed parrot growing to about 43cms and is fairly common throughout most of the East Coast of Australia. The female and immature birds have a brownish green head and breast."

"Whilst having dinner on the veranda this evening we had a visit from the Pair of King Parrots - at one time they were both in the feed box only about 6 feet away from where I was seated. They then moved on to the cherry tomato bushes for dessert and Kim was able to get some very good pictures." (see below)

Ted writes "The Laughing Kookaburra, a large kingfisher growing to about 46cm and found throughout the eastern states of Australia. They nest in hollow trees or termite nests. We have a family of eight kookaburras visiting us morning and afternoon most days. We feed them strips of raw meat and one of these birds will happily eat from Kim's hand - just watch out for that beak! Young kookaburras continue to live at home for about four years. Their parents put them to good use; young laughing kookaburras perform about a third of incubation and brooding duties for the next generation and supply the nestlings with over half of their food.

(There is also the Blue winged kookabura - they have a mostly blue wing whereas the laughing kookaburra has only small flecks of blue on the wings - you might just be able to pick it on my photo)."

Have a look at http://www.anbg.gov.au/birds Excellent pictures & sounds of birds found in Australian Botanic Gardens.

The photos taken by Barrie Jamieson B.Sc., Ph.D., D.Sc. (Professor Emeritus, University of Queensland)