Animal Diaries Archive

More Of Our Birds...

4 March 2005

Crikey! Another week has flown by, just as fast as our 'Swift Parrots' when they are hooting around the Rainforest Aviary. Well… this week we would like to continue our article from last week and expand on the huge list of wild birds that can be observed and enjoyed within our Zoo.

Next door to our Wetlands exhibit are the emu enclosures and although some have been planted by us, many of the flowering shrubs in this area were here before us. Now who do you reckon would be frequenting these? Yep...� you guessed it, honeyeaters. They visit this area by the dozens and it is the Lewin's Honeyeater that is the most common of all. 'Larry' Lewin, as we like to call them, are not the prettiest of the honeyeater group but these fellas have a beautiful, unmistakable call and put a smile on our dials just about everyday.

The Blue-faced Honeyeater, with an intriguing bright blue, bald head can often be seen feeding on the Grevillia's near the people mover track opposite 'Cootha' the wooden crocodile. If you don't spot them there, duck over to the Birds of Prey exhibit because they regularly drop by to give these birds a mouthful and a hard time.

An absolute treat and fair dinkum favourite, that doesn't visit enough, is the White-naped Honeyeater. If you do observe this beauty please tell a keeper because the bird team would love to know!

The White-checked Honeyeater is also a seasonal visitor and is strikingly beautiful, with a splendid call. It is a real treat when this beautiful creature visits us and it is a bugger that they don't stay longer. The Scarlet Honeyeater is a tiny little bird that makes up for its lack of size with a spectacularly beautiful, bright red plumage, and is definitely one for your 'to spot' list. If you walk around looking at your feet all day your going to miss out on smiling like a Chesire cat, after getting a glimpse of these little beauties.

Other native little rippers local to our neck of woods and often observed in the Zoo include the visually spectacular Red-backed Fairy-wrens. The male Red-backed Fairy-wren is predominately black with vivid red plumage on his back and if you see this bloke, you'll be skipping for the rest of the day. Variegated Fairy-wrens have also been seen in and around the Zoo. Two gorgeous members of the Australian Finch family often seen in and around the Wetland and Kangaroo enclosures, are the Red-browed Firetails and the Double-bar Finches.

The Yellow Robin, the Grey Shrike Thrush, the Shining Bronze Cuckoo and two of our favourites, the Eastern Whipbird and the Golden Whistler are also wonderful examples of our Australian bird life that are often seen hanging out with the Cassowaries and kicking back.

Two Channel-billed Cuckoos have been raised by the pair of resident Torresian Crows the last two years running. These huge, impressive cuckoos (or storm birds if you like!) are a sight to see as they chase mum and dad around the Zoo begging to be fed, again and again. Channel-billed Cuckoos aren't big on raising youngsters, so they lay their eggs in crows' nests. Once the cuckoos hatch, the youngsters kick out the crow eggs (or the baby crows as the case may be). Mum and dad crow (oblivious to the fact they aren't their babies), only see and hear hungry mouths to feed. Once the cuckoos have fledged, they keep their surrogate mum and dad crow on the hop, screaming to be fed and constantly chasing them everywhere.

As you're walking around the Zoo, keep an eye out for Buff-banded Rails that zip in and out of the plants around the creeks and waterways. These handsome little fellas can also be seen near the alligator enclosures. With racing stripes across their chests, they hoot around on the ground chasing insects and the like. Sometimes you can get lucky and spot them with their "little black balls of fluff" babies running around after them.

Other birds that spring to mind, that I don't want to leave out and would love to bend your ear a bit more about, include the wonderful little White-browed Scrubwrens. These guys just seem to turn up every now and then, and in a small flock of 5 to 10 birds, "sweep" through each enclosure feeding, hunting and bathing in the ponds, and then just disappear as quickly as they turned up.

There is also the busy little Silver eyes and Straited Pardalotes, as well as Rainbow Bee-eaters and Noisy Pittas. Spangled Drongos and Restless Flycatchers (also known as Scissor grinders because of the extraordinary noise they make!). On top of these there is even Black-faced Cuckoo-shrikes and the 'only mum could love me!' Noisy Friarbirds.

Well, as you can see, there is quite a list of wild birds that fly by, drop in and even call the Zoo home. Hopefully next week we can wrap this 'elongated' article up (we've still got to tell you about the Parrots and Lorikeets, Pigeons and Doves as well as the birds of prey and raptors!) As you can see, if you get your kicks from checking out birds, there is no better thing to do, then rockin' up to Australia Zoo with your camera, binoculars and an Australian birds field guide.