Eastern Spinebill

One of my absolute favourites among our garden visitors is the pretty little Eastern Spinebill - Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris - a very long name for a shy little honeyeater. They are busy feeders, loving the native nectar flowers like grevillea and Epacris, but in our garden preferring the long tubular fuchsias and salvias.

We love watching them hanging upside down feeding from the drooping fuchsias or hovering like humming birds as they feed. In spring they become quite bold, collecting cobwebs from the eaves of our veranda just a couple of metres from where we sit.

Liz Needle

Linking with

Wild Bird Wednesday

Our World Tuesday

Colour in the Garden

At the moment there is not a lot of colour in the garden - autumn leaves were all but absent as we had that late dry, warm summer/autumn and no frosts to bring out the leaf colour. Very disappointing as I love the autumn color. Alas, the leaves just fell off the trees and we got the usual mess without the glorious colour. At least we are now getting the rain we needed.

But, we are getting colour in the garden as you can see from the photos. These beautiful birds are Rosellas. The one we get here in Adelaide is appropriately called the 'Adelaide Rosella' and is a subspecies of the Crimson Rosella from the Eastern states.

They come in a range of colours from yellowish to orange to red and all shades in between, which makes them far more interesting than the Crimson  Rosella. The young ones are born green and gradually get their colours as they mature.

Liz Needle

linking with

Our World Tuesday

Wild Bird Wednesday. If you pop over to this link you will find a great post on the Crimson Rosella.

A Rare Sight

Although we have many birds in our garden, we don't always get a chance to photograph them, or to even get a good look at some of the shyer ones. It seems to me that every time I get my camera out, the birds disappear!!

Last week I had a couple of lucky sightings. Wattle birds are very common around here, but they usually stick to the trees and rarely come down close enough or for long enough to get a shot. I guess with not much water around, they are coming closer to get a drink, because I was able to not only get a good shot of the little Wattlebird (pretty common here), but also of the Red Wattlebird - far less common.

Little Wattlebirds - here the wattle is non-existent or very small, hence the "little".

Red Wattlebird - the wattle is much larger and more noticeable.

Tasmania has a Yellow Wattlebird, not found on the mainland. This one has a bright yellow belly and long fleshy yellow wattles. Wattlebirds are honeyeaters and are often quite aggressive towards smaller honeyeaters.

Linking with

Our World Tuesday
Wild Bird Wednesday


Liz Needle

Every Garden Needs a Birdbath

With the beautiful Autumn weather we have been enjoying (and some great rain), we have spent many pleasant hours sitting on the veranda enjoying the birdlife in the garden.  I have been doing a lot of hard gardening too, cleaning up the remains of summer in preparation for the Winter onslaught.

Installing birdbaths around the garden was the best idea and they are used regularly by most of the bird visitors, especially since we have had such a dry Summer and Autumn. Please enjoy these visits just as we have enjoyed them.

A communal bathing of Red-browed Finches.

Very shy and hard to catch a decent shot. A Yellow-faced Honeyeater.

A young Adelaide Rosella, just beginning to come into full colour.

A European Goldfinch drops in. These used to be very common here, but these days they are occasional visitors. Not an indigenous species, but pretty and very welcome to visit.

And one of my favourites. This pair of Silvereyes have been hanging around a lot lately. I hope they stay a while.

I am linking this page with

Our World Tuesday
Wild Bird Wednesday



Liz Needle