Well, unlike willie wagtail, the mockingbird has a whole repertoire of songs copied from other birds. But then, so does the lyrebird.
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If there’s one adjective I wouldn’t associate with them, it’d be “apologetic”!
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“We’re so sorry that you don’t recognize our superiority.”
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It’s the eyebrows. Kind of like that extra muscle domestic dogs developed that widen their eyse (puppy dog eyes). If an animal has any kind of facial expression connection to us, they’re definitely ‘in’, as far as attractiveness goes.
But besides that, it’s a bird. And that’s such a huge advantage on the beauty sweepstakes to begin with!
Feathers and fluffy fur…
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[quote=“broacher, post:66, topic:40735”]
Feathers and fluffy fur…
[/quote]Feathers and fluffy fur…
I was okay until that… which my mind showed me Gryphon…
I guess we’re okay until the leaves open…and to never forget my hat!
Fur and feathers….oh my
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Great Blue Herons! They’re fairly common near the bays, ponds and wetlands in my area, but I can’t help photographing every one I see. They’re just so majestic and beautiful.
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Kangaroos! Especially mothers with joeys.
When they’re bounding, I dream of capturing the perfect silhouette, reminiscent of the Qantas logo. And when they’re standing still, it is capturing the light in their beautiful big brown eyes that I aim for.
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Oh yeah, it’s mutual for sure! Among many North American birds I wish were present here in Australia, my top one would have to be hummingbirds - they’re such cool little birds!! Closest thing we have here is the Olive-backed Sunbird, a common garden species in the northeast, but the way hummingbirds hover like that is just mesmerising! If I ever visit the US, first thing I’m doing is putting up a hummingbird feeder.
I’d also love to see woodpeckers too! And mergansers! All the funny North American ducks (we have some weird ass ducks here in aus too - look up the Musk Duck and Pink-eared Duck)!! Loons! Wrens (all the birds called “wrens” in aus aren’t true wrens)! Painted Buntings! Snowy Owls! Blue Jays! Waxwings! Grackles! All the gulls (aus has gulls, but only a measly 3 species)! Roadrunners! and all the funny shorebirds we don’t get here (yellowlegs, Willet, Marbled Godwit, American Woodcock, Killdeer, Piping Plover, Least Sandpiper, Black Turnstone)! Alcids!
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Same here. So gorgeous and graceful in their slow-mo style of flight and then when they land it’s like, they practically disappear!
It amazes me how much of their body is just those massive wings.
I was hooked by another very common species today. Tree Swallows.
There’s a park down the road about 5 min from here where they’ve set up dozens and dozens of nesting boxes and the hundreds of birds there are so sure of their surroundings that you can walk right by them or stop to take a picture at a distance of less than 4 feet or so.
I could watch them fly all day. And those colours. Admiring this common bird is a concept that’s definitely not hard to… swallow? [sorry!]
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I always forget you guys (and in fact the entire old world) have no hummingbirds! And you’re right, woodpeckers are certainly charmers, and you can probably tell from my username I love wrens. Puffins and other alcids are also amazing, even if most of them are hard to find.
From my perspective, both of those ducks look insane (affectionately) but I’ve always been most jealous of some of Australia’s really iconic birds. Parakeets, lorikeets, and cockatoos (and budgies, and rosellas, etc) seem very personable and charming, if a bit destructive, and I love that iconic kookaburra call. Bin chickens, if nothing else, seem like a nice change of pace from raccoons, and I have to admit I have a soft spot for magpies (though maybe I wouldn’t if I had to deal with them). Not to mention all your ducks, the pied cormorant, brushturkeys, wedge-tailed eagles (so big!), ratites, and black swans, plus of course all the mammals that tourists love (wallabies, platypi, koalas, possums) and the herps and invertebrates they don’t (frilled lizards! bearded dragons!).
It really is remarkable how much greener the grass seems when it comes to birding, I guess… :P
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The grass is also greener everywhere else for plants and grasshoppers and caterpillars and plant hoppers and salamanders and, well, everything.
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What about Stork’s Bill (Erodium)?
It’s a pretty little flower with worldwide distribution and fruit that looks like it came out of Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands. The way the seeds bury themselves is neat too, see video!
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Parrots certainly are charming (and more than a bit destructive :P), I especially fell for rosellas when I visited the southeast and Tasmania (they are present in my area, but rare other than in drier inland areas). I do love Artamidae too (Australian Magpies, Currawongs, Butcherbirds and relatives), theyre just so charming - Magpies are very rare in my area, so I’ve never been swooped by them. Gotta love the ratites too! Seeing a wild cassowary is not an experience you’ll soon forget.
I don’t really see too much in the way of mammals, besides flying foxes (which I imagine could be very alarming to see for the first time, especially if you’re unfamiliar with them!) and the occasional microbats (never identifiable lol, I only ever see them in flight), but Australia certainly has very cool mammals! Besides the macropods, possums and bats (and wombats in some areas), mammals are not really a very visible part of the fauna here, you really have to look for them - most are small, wary, and nocturnal. Platypuses are certainly one of my favourites, there’s just nothing else like them! I’m also fond of quolls and antechinuses, but I’ve never been lucky enough to spot any in the wild.
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A few years ago I was in Cuba for a friend’s wedding. I got assigned duty as nature mentor to a couple of Canadian kids who were interested in the stuff they were seeing and a bit bored with resort life. The younger of the two (she was 10) got right into it. She was (and probably still is) an in-your-face kid, full of questions and energy - the sort of kid that cranky adults are prone to label as a handful. She made a point of drawing attention to things and at a coastal cafe where we were having lunch she came to my table, excited, to tell me that she had seen a new bird.
I went with her to the edge of the parking lot where house sparrows were scratching in the dirt and squabbling with each other. She was obviously disappointed when I told her that these were the same species that she saw in the city at home. So then we had a conversation about how interesting it is that this little bird is at home in pretty much any climate and how it makes use of human spaces. She was the kind of kid who immediately started thinking about that and forgot about her disappointment.
I think about that conversation every time I see one, which happens less often now as predatory birds expand their presence in North American urban environments.
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Does this include grackles? We’ve seen big grackles dive in and attack and decapitate young house sparrows hanging around our feeder. This only started about two years ago. And I have noticed that the local grackle population does seem to be increasing rapidly.
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I’m a fan of big fields of yellow flowers
Another one last year https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/133954748
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The studies I’m familiar with looked at distribution and abundance of urban raptors as a contributing factor but the decline is widespread and is inevitably a result of cumulative effects.
Which species of grackle are you seeing at your feeder?
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