Cardinal Button |
All the birds that visit the Tapas Bar have names and characters. And as the number has grown over the last 5 months, I thought it timely to do a who’s who post.
My Kooka Family is headed up by Boss & Bashful, then
Bitey (he’s 2 yrs old), Brave Baby & Bully (last year’s bubs) and this year’s
addition, Button.
But this post is about the others.
The Lorikeets:
Daphne coming to join her Beau. |
While predominately pollen & nectar eaters, they don’t
mind a bit of fruit. They’re not keen on the banana, monstera fruit, peach or
the corn on offer.
But they LOVE grapes. Initially I was giving them whole
grapes. This stopped for a couple of reasons. They have a habit of taking their
food to the camera to eat, and bite the grape causing juice to squirt out of
both ends, like a flattened jelly doughnut. They became pretty adept at aiming
this at the camera.The main reason is they are pigs. They were eating me out of house and home. They would land and eat all that was there, before other birds that also like grapes got a look in. So they now the grapes get sliced in 3.
Noticing that the Bowerbirds & Catbirds like to spring Cedrick thought he'd give it a go. |
Sharing the moment |
Straight from the hood of a Bentley |
Daphne, are you listening to me? |
Mick, Mal & Nancy |
The Noisy Miners:
Meet Mal, Mick & Nancy. These guys are real opportunists. While supposedly being nectar/fruit/insect eaters, they have a go at everything including meat. They particularly like rice.
These guys hassle. They hassle the others that visit, they
hassle themselves. They just like to hassle.
But they are entertaining.
Mick taking a nip out of Mal. Poor old Mal - everyone has a go at him. |
Mick doing a fly by. |
Turns out Noisy Miners have a right to passage for manhood. This is Mal barking at the Bear. |
Some say this is good luck. My camera didn't think so. Who said birds don't have a sense of humour? |
Mal on the way to another flogging. Red the Wattlebird is twice his size & knows it. |
"Mick, I'm telling you, it's right on the tip of my tongue. |
My Satin Bowerbird family.
Both Angelina & Shirley. Brad's girlfriends. |
One of the regulars to the Tapas Bar, is a family of Satin Bowerbirds. These guys are real stunners. Brad (the male) has 2 girlfriends I think. Angelina & Shirley. A couple of months ago both the girls turned up with bubs. Well last week, Angelina turned up with Shiloh her daughter. Named because we won’t know her sex for another 6 years. If she’s a boy she changes to Black like her dad.
"Hi I'm Brad. Yeah, I know. I'm a knockout" |
I don’t get to see too much of Brad, as he is either
prancing in front of his “Bower” trying to pick up girls. And if he’s not
courting he’s building. He takes meticulous care in decorating the front yard
with items he thinks will catch a girls’ eye. He will collect objects and place
them out the front of his bower. Most commonly they will be blue in colour. Plastic
straws, bottle tops, marbles. With all that prancing & dancing &
building, he has to take quick breaks to eat. These forays are usually close to
home, because while he’s away, other boy bowerbirds can come in & trash his
joint.
Angelina doing what she does. |
Being fruit & berry eaters there’s no surprise they’re
attracted to the Tapas Bar. They have a passion for grapes, but are also
partial to mashed potato/pumpkin. They also like banana.
My 1st introduction to Angelina's Bub |
Meet Shiloh |
Skittery. This is Shiloh flying off with more than a mouthful |
Shiloh looking over her shoulder for those pesky miners. |
It's tough being young. |
Well I'm outa here. |
As am I. Well that's it for now. This is only half of the crew.
See you on the next post.