A stunned silvereye

A few minutes ago we heard a thud of a bird hitting a window.  After a check nothing was seen splatted on the deck so we assumed the victim had not been badly impacted and subsequently flown away.

Then I went out to the deck to collect a cup of coffee and thought to sit and drink it there.  Fortunately I looked down first:

This is clearly a Silvereye, Zosterops lateralis.  From the pale colour of the flans I rate this as Z. l. familiaris the most widespread sub-species.  At some times of the year many of the Silvereyes seen in this area are the chestnut-flanked race Z. l. lateralis which breeds in Tasmania but migrates North for Winter.

Here is a close up of the head showing that the ring around the eye is in fact white, not silver.  It also shows nicely the detail of the feathers.

Later in the day I came across a flock of Silvereyes munching on insects around old Acacia seeds.

Some Images from Radcliffe Estate

Over the past couple of years we have recorded occasional sightings in the Widgiewa area of New Holland Honeyeaters dining on Banksias or Kniphofias.  However I was recently sent a video which included an sequence of several birds of this species enjoying a bird bath in Radcliffe.  The following images are screen grabs from that video, taken by Jeannie Imrie & Michael Wilkes.

The bird bath was also popular with a good sized flock of Red-browed Finches ...

... sometimes sharing with Silvereyes.

The area around this property is a favourite haunt of Cunningham's Skinks (OK, I know they aren't birds but are descended from dinosaurs and lay eggs).

Jeannie and Michael have subsequently sent me some additional images of which a selection, from various time periods, follow.

A Satin Bowerbird has visited in the past.  Trying to put demographics to this species is tricky but my guess is a young male bird (throat too colourful for a female and bill too dark for a 5 or 6 year old male).

White-winged Choughs often seem to crowd on one side of a birdbath (in my experience occasionally leading to a fallen bath).  This lot seem to have kept their balance.

A Grey-Shrike-thrush in a pot.  Jeannie commented that they nest "every year in the geranium pots hanging on the walls. This year they only managed the one brood, but last year they had two batches."

Wedge-tailed eagles don't fit in birdbaths or flower pots!

Small-birds-R-Us

We have had a bird bath for some time, and it took about a year for the birds to start frequenting it.   They now do so regularly and get snapped when they hang around long enough for me to fire up my camera.

Today a flock of Superb Blue Wrens did the honours and I thought the images good enough to use a few of your electrons.  The original title of the post referred to them.

Shortly afterwards a flock of Red-browed Finches (aka Red-browed Firetails) also appeared for a splash and a slurp.  So the title was changed.

Then a horde of Silvereyes descended on the sunroom bed so the title changed again!  These are very active little birds so it was difficult to get good images (possibly I need to keep trying).