MY BIRDS

There are a lot of birds visiting my garden since as well as feeding them with a specially formulated food that I can buy in the shops I also have lots of native plants in the garden which are the birds' natural food.

This Noisy Mynah has running battle with the Rainbow Lorikeets for the food I put out but unfortunately he always seems to be on the losing end especially when the Lorikeets have babies to feed.





The Crimson Rosella rarely visits the food tray now since the Lorikeets have taken over the garden but I do see them in the Grevillea bushes frequently.



The Pink Galahs are all over the place - in the gardens, parks and even alongside major roads and highways, they can be seen pecking away at the grass seeds. The country people don't like them very much, especially the councils, since they tend to perch on the overhead wires and spin round them until the wire breaks.



The cockatoos are even more hated by the farmers since you can imagine how much damage can be done to a crop of sunflower seeds once a flock of cockies find it. They are a protected bird but I have heard of farmers culling these birds in order to protect their crop.



The Lorikeets again - getting stuck into their natural food from the flowers of the Grevilleas.



Here, two lorikeets are waiting for me to put out some more food.....what the Crested pigeon is waiting for though, I'm not sure since they don't like the same food as the Lorikeets.



The Kookaburras don't visit the garden all that often but when they do you certainly know they are there. They are meateaters so I usually have some minced meat in the frig. for them and when I throw it to them they are fast and usually catch it in mid air.



The Butcher Birds are also meat eaters, as their name implies and if you are not careful they don't mind helping themselves if the barbecue meat isn't watched carefully.



Other birds that visit are the usual sparrows, doves and magpies. I have had to stop feeding the seed eating birds since seed of any kind is a huge attraction for the cockatoos. I have also had visits from the King Parrots, but this is very rare as are visits by the Silver Eyes which used to fly up from Tasmania at certain times of the year.

Another native bird is the Currawong - another meat eater - but since these like to feed on the eggs and young of the other birds, I don't encourage them, either.