My usually brilliant Pizzey & Knight bird book wasn't immediately helpful, so I asked Google, as you do, with a reverse image search.
Google came up with scaly-breasted munia, or Indian silvertail. Neither are Australian. Then it tried yellow-rumped mannikin. Closer, but only in the Northern Territory. Back to the book then, and after studying the mannikin page carefully, I think I've cracked it. I think they are chestnut-breasted mannikins. There are males, females, and juveniles in there.
I'd been wondering what the smell in the garage was. Hoped that one of the humans in the household hadn't had an unrecorded 'accident'. Then someone pointed out to me the very sorry looking mascot protruding from the front grill of my car. I had a recollection of seeing a bird disappear in front of me a few days earlier, but none of any bump.
He got a respectful burial in the rubbish bin, along with all the wriggling maggots bursting out of his belly.
Mostly you go to Eumundi on one of its market days. And it's very very busy.
We went there on a Tuesday, and it was nice and quiet.
Why did the bush stone-curlew cross the road? The book says they're usually heard and not seen.
And as for this very cheeky water dragon, he had the absolute run of the place at the nearby Cafe Doonan.
An Australian Raven (Corvus coronoides). Or there again, it could be a Torresian Crow (Corvus orru). I'm having trouble picking the difference. Hadn't knowingly come across the latter before coming to Queensland.
Seen at Coolum Beach on Sunday.
And here's the nosy noisy miner (Manorina melanocephala), in Marcoola yesterday. They often do this wing mirror routine, I've found.
I was stalking this Brahminy Kite today on Warana Beach. In turn, it was stalking a chap who was fishing on the beach. Must be easier than catching your own fish!
I should have looked up though. Turned out there's an Australian Raven nest overhead! Two in fact. Never saw them before. And then a mob of Australian White Ibises flew over, and two of those extraordinary Australasian Figbirds turned up in the palm tree above the pool!
Too late. You missed out!
Mind you, it was approaching 5pm and I was at Picnic Point. The iconic Bird Lady was doing her thing in the park below. I think they were waiting their turn.
Here's my previous post on the Bird Lady: previous post
I think it might be a daily performance. I'll do further research and report back.
Picnic Point's legendary bird lady was out yesterday afternoon, welcoming some of the rainbow lorikeets back to their overnight roosts.
Magpie-larks are found over wide areas of Australia, but they seem to be particularly prolific here on the Sunshine Coast.
I used to be a bit confused about the different patterns of black and white I'd encountered, but it seems it's actually quite simple.
This one's a female. She's got a white face like a Geisha Girl.
And this one's a male, with his stern eyebrows and big black beard!
Maybe everyone has encounters with bush stone-curlews, but it was my first one, as far as I'm aware. It was in the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens, and I nearly missed them, so good is their camouflage.
They're also known as the Bush Thick-knee (Burhinus grallarius), and apparently relatively little is known about their habits, except that they're mostly nocturnal. These ones weren't.
More here: Qld-Lands-for-Wildlife article
This rainbow lorikeet was looking very much the worse for wear the other morning in Maroochydore.
A magpie lark actually (Grallina cyanoleuca). He hangs out at Maroochydore's Culture cafe, just like we often do!
A white-faced heron the other day near Coolum Beach. He'd seen something edible down there, and took up his sniper position. He then stood motionless for several minutes, and I gave up and walked away.
Also known as the bananabird.
I hadn't encountered these until I came to the Sunshine Coast, though they're said to be widespread elsewhere. They do battle with the noisy miners for control of the tree out the front.
This juvenile butcherbird was taking an awful lot of interest in the treats on show at Banjo's bakery cafe yesterday morning!
I ventured into Noosa National Park this morning, or at least into the Headland section, a big chunk to the east and south of Noosa town. I did a nice 10km round trip from Sunshine Beach.
There were beaches, coastal heathland, rainforest, hundreds of surfers and day tripping tourists, and dramatic clifftop lookouts. An excellent morning out, and it reminded me rather of Sydney's Royal National Park, on a smaller scale.
Alexandria Bay
The Tanglewood Track
I saw a few drongos along the way. Many of them were driving noisy surf skis. Some of them though were these rather fine looking shiny black birds. (Spangled drongo - Dicrurus bracteatus)
