Honeyeaters love the "Honeyflower"

I love the way that some birds intuitively "understand" the plants I grow.

Our Australian Honeyeaters love plants which produce nectar in long tubular flowers. These birds relate to Mexican Salvias as easily as they do to native Australian Waratahs and Grevilleas. And then there is the spectacular "Large Honeyflower" from South Africa.

I love this plant mostly for its intricately patterned leaves. I have mentioned before, that this plant reminds me of my (late) Mother and her beloved dressmaking scissors - her "Pinking Shears". The deeply incised leaves look as if cut in that zig-zag edge pattern of Pinking Shears.

But for the birds, the nectar is the important part of this plant.

This plant is called Melianthus major .
That name translates easily as Melia = Honey; Anthus = flower + major = large. Large Honeyflower. That South African plants site says: "The nectar-rich, bird pollinated flowers rise up above the leaves, drawing attention with their unusual rusty red colouring."

And that, dear reader, is a reminder of the Gondwanan link between our Australian birds and the plants of South Africa, Australia and Mexico. There is a tendency for plants from those three regions to produce long tubular flowers which have copious nectar. Our Australian bird family of Honeyeaters are specialists.

An Eastern Spinebill on an Australian Grevillea.

Here is a close-up of the head of a young Spinebill
which died of concussion when it flew into a friend's window.
Look at the long thin beak.
The scientific name is: Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris
Wikipedia says: "The generic name is derived from the Greek translation of its common name, namely acantho-/ακανθο- "spine" and rhynchos/ρυνχος "bill". Its specific name is from Latin tenuis "narrow" and rostrum billed."
Got that?
"Long thin spine beak" - perfect for getting into long curved flowers.

Here is a Brush Wattlebird feeding on the Melianthus major.
Note the yellow pollen dusted all over its forehead.

Here is the bird sizing up the best flower head to go for.

And here is the Wattlebird perched on the flower stem.
Note the similarity in posture with this image, and that of
the first picture of the Eastern Spinebill.
These Honeyeaters are great acrobats.
This posture, poised underneath a flower stem,
reaching up into a protruding curved flower is a classic pose.
They are even able to feed upside down.
They do that, if necessary,
to get their long tongues inside the flower.

*****

These birds do not care where the flower originated.
They know it carries nectar,
and they are perfectly adapted to harvest it.

Party Time!

St Francis of the Bird Feeder? Not in Hi-Vis!

My brother, Brendan, will have to lose the "Hi-Vis" shirt if he hopes to charm the Lewin's Honeyeater to take food from his hands.
In fact, the bird was fairly relaxed in his presence, and moved in to feed on the Melon, while Brendan was only one and a half metres away.

Here you can see the Lewin assessing any risks before moving in..
And down it goes, with the brush-tongue lapping up the juice.
For most Honeyeaters, the juice is of more interest than the fruit tissue.
Several days ago I showed the Brush Wattlebird "lapping" the juice
from the outside of the Melon, rather than pecking at it,
as the Bowerbirds do.

Birds on the Feeder

A friend of mine had planned to come over today, because I had told her about my Bowerbirds, and she said she had never seen one (presumably she means "up close enough to recognise"). I feel sure everybody in the Southern Highlands must have seen a Bowerbird at some stage, but perhaps not. Certainly in Robertson and other highlands villages close to the escarpment, they are common, and gardeners regard them as pests.
Anyway, this afternoon, on schedule the birds started coming in for the fruit platter on display on my back deck. This is the "Feeder" which my brother has built. Did I say he is very proud of how well it works?
Well, the first to arrive today was the "Blue Bird" - the adult male Satin Bowerbird. He was very wary of me, and so I had to use a long lens through a partially opened doorway, to get any sort of shot at all.

This green bird is more relaxed and less "flighty" than the Blue Bird.
This bird is a juvenile of indeterminate sex.

With a beak full of banana, it is lining up already for another grab.

Here we go!
Note the yellow gape, indicating its relatively young age.
Here is a Brush Wattlebird on a juicy piece of watermelon, on the feeder.
It is licking juice from the fruit, not "eating" the fruit.
Here it is, in heavily zoomed image, with its brush tongue out,
wiping over the fruit, to collect the juice.
When the larger birds are feeding, the Lewin's Honeyeater hangs around,
waiting for the table to be clear of the competition.
While it loses out in size, it makes up for it with persistence.
Anyway, if my friend does come over next week, I am sure there will be more Bowerbirds for her to see.

Third day of fog and drizzle in Robbo.

I go stir crazy after three days of conditions like these.

The bush is dripping wet, the birds are nearly invisible, and I refuse to go looking in the wet leaf litter for Orchids.
I went and visited Andy and Anni this afternoon, which was lovely. Nice company, and the tail end of Christmas goodies, including Anni's own Dill-cured Salmon, and some of Andy's home-made Pate, served with a pickle, and Lingonberry sauce. That is a traditional Finnish touch, apparently. Very refreshing indeed.

I had started the day early, shortly after sunlight started to peer through the fog.

Fog and Mist 6:58 am (3rd day of Fog)

I decided to put out a Pear, for any "early birds". They were around, but I missed seeing them. Judging by how fast the first half of the pear disappeared, I assume the early visitors were Bowerbirds, or Currawongs.

Small and medium birds waiting their turn.
A Little Wattlebird (low down)
and a Lewin's Honeyeater (up high)

When next I checked, the fog had cleared somewhat - visibility rated at about 300 metres (maybe).

11:34 am - close to midday.A series of Little Wattlebirds (Anthochaera chrysoptera) came to peck surreptitiously at the fruit.

If you look closely, under the apple there is a pool of juice.

It took me a while to work out what this bird was doing.
But of course, it was lapping up the juice
with its specialised nectar-feeding tongue.

Then a female Satin Bowerbird (Ptilonorhynchus violaceus) came in to finish its share of the meal.

The fog had moved back in on us, later in the afternoon.
Fog and mist at 5:34 pm.
Visibilty reduced to 100 metres again.

And then a Lewin's Honeyeater (Meliphaga lewinii)
came back in for a last peck.

Summer? It hardly seems like it.

Unfortunately, the two rainfall reporting stations in Robertson are both "off-line" from the Bureau of Meteorology's rainfall reporting system. I will report this to them on Tuesday, the next scheduled working day. I know they are busty with flood warnings at present, elsewhere in the State.

"The First Koel"

This morning, after the fog lifted about 10:00am (hooray), and watery sunshine broke through, I heard a strange bird calling. Strange for Robertson, anyway. It was a Koel. (Eudynamys scolopacea) - referred to as the "Common Koel" - obviously not a name from Robertson!

These birds are common on the coast, and these days they are common around Bowral in summer, but I have never seen or heard one in Robertson before.

Koels are Cuckoos which parasitise the nests of the large members of the Honeyeater family of birds - generally Red Wattlebirds and Noisy Friarbirds. As Robertson is not an area where Eucalypts dominate the vegetation, we have relatively few nectar-bearing native plants here. As such, we are not a popular area for the Wattlebirds and Friarbirds. I have seen both here - but as migrants, flying through in migrating flocks in spring and autumn. We do have visits by the "Brush Wattlebird", but they come in when the local Mistletoes are in flower, on the Blackwood Wattles. While here, they also visit the other nectar-producing flowers we people tend to grow in our gardens. But as far as the natural bvegatation is concerned, the Mistletoes are about the only food source, for the Brush Wattlebirds here, and even they are seasonal, for only one species grows on the one species of Wattle. When these plants are not in flower the Wattlebirds move out of the area. Consequently, without their favourite "host species" of birds it has not surprised me that Koels are generally absent from Robertson.

However, here it was this morning - on Christmas Morning.

Nobody who has heard the Koel's call would refer to it as "carolling" - but forgive me a seasonal pun... it was "The First Koel", visiting me, simply for musical reasons and in search of seasonal relevance.

You may listen to the Koel call here (scroll down to the bottom right of that page, and click on the MP3 link). My bird was apparently a female, doing the second of these calls, not the slow single "ko-el" call, which is the one first played on the recording.
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