His favourite perch during the day.

Wow, what a beautiful bird! Do you feed him?

No he is a nectar feeder so we just ensure we have a few flowering Grevillias and bottle brushes around the house to keep them fed. The lady next door has a mass of hibiscus and ornimental gingers that they go to most days as well. They only lay one to two eggs every year and it looks like it is the same pair comming back every year. Pretty cheeky as they use spider webs and dead leaves to build the nest and keep comming to one of the windows in my computer room. They like to perch on the side mirrors of the car as it comes down the 50 metre plus driveway. If you sit quietly enough they will allow you to get with in about 5 metres but they are very flighty with any noises out of the ordinary. The nest they built is on one of my fishing rods which I have retired as a permenant perch for them now.

That is amazing, talk about adapting to it's environment!

Yeah they seem to be pretty happy with the location and don't mind us walking passed the nest or driving cars in and out under it. Probably used to us i would say. I think we are pretty lucky to have them and make sure that the cars are parked too far away for the cats in the nieghbourhood to get to it.

Thousands of budgies and Cockateils are breeding in the Centre atm, I went out to a creek just to the west of Alice Springs to have a look at the progress of these guys, Here are some pics.

A hen at the entrance to her hollow.



A pair of Cockateils at it!!!





I found many hollows full with budgie chicks only 1m above ground.



This hollow had a small opening but I was able to see in and count 5 chicks in the nest.



From the look at the development stages of chicks there should be another 4 weeks to go and we will start to see some massive flocks of budgies.
Cheers DS

Sorry about the piss poor quality as it was just taken via my cellphone but Mr Dopey Kingfisher below payed a visit..



Full speed, smacked into my ranch slider glass door not 2m away from me and Zayda.. amazingly she didnt bat an eyelid to try eat it, I went inside & calmed it down, gave it 5 minutes to recover, a good drink of water & put it ontop of the outside parrot avairys where it took off again to see its mates..

Stupid bird.

Great photos everyone!
I've been getting right into the bird photos of late, it is a good remedy to cure storm deprivation throughout the long dry season


Lemon-bellied Flycatcher

ISO 650, 1/80 sec, f9, 7D, EF 300mm f/2.8L IS + 2x TC, 580EX II @ -1/3.




Forest Kingfisher

ISO 800, 1/60 sec, f7.1, 7D, EF 300mm f/2.8L IS + 2x TC.




Rainbow Bee-eater

ISO 640, f8, 1/160 sec, 7D, EF 300mm f/2.8L IS + 2x TC.

Lots of great shots there.

Jacci, love your work, have seen it on Flickr too. It inspires me to put in more effort on the bird front.

Here's a few of mine lately (mostly shot handheld using a Canon 50D and 400L f/5.6 lens):


Superb Fairy-wren, Macquarie Pass National Park, NSW.


Spotted Pardalote, Tahmoor, NSW.


Common Bronzewing, Tahmoor, NSW.


Yellow-tufted Honeyeater, Tahmoor, NSW.

The following shots were taken at Symbio Wildlife Park, Stanwell Tops, NSW. It was kind of like shooting fish in a barrel except for the bowerbird which had his bower covered with blue objects out in the open, he was a hard denizen to catch but I got a pic of him eventually

Male Satin BowerBird



Wedge Tailed Eagle



Pair of Cockatiels



Emerald Dove



Bar Shouldered Dove



Crimson Rosella



Pair of Rainbow Lorikeets



and last but not least an Eastern Rosella



Stephen

Hello all, I've been enjoying my new 55-200mm lens by experimenting with it down at the beach. I love the freedom it gives you. You can spend more time waiting and trying to compose your shot instead of worrying about positioning yourself as near to the birds as possible. The shots below are of a pair of Red-capped plovers. Also, what surprised me was when they started vibrating their feet through the sand to uncover food. The vibrating was liquefying the sand to the consistency of quicksand, allowing the food below to float to the surface. I'd never seen anything like it before. The video below shows one of the two in the process of doing this. The other photo was a juvenile pacific gull that was circling overhead.











Red-capped Plover Vibrating Foot Through Sand to Uncover Food
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IQ3O6b2ZoI

Male & female King Parrots visiting on my verandah.

A New Holland Honeyeater:

Great pics everyone, DNO those king parrots are eating my sunflowers to bits and are munching on my cherry tomatoes, cheeky buggers. They only show early morning and late arvo and im pretty sure they are a male and female pair.

nice photos everyone, a couple of my attempts from cox scrub, near Ashbourne, SA. its a super place for bird watching.
fairy wren

dusky woodswallow

Wow, loving some of these pics.

I've been watching the progress of these little guys, black faced cuckoo shrikes. The parents have been extremely accommodating...letting me climb into the tree to take pictures.








This is mum or dad

I think this duck is called a Little Grebe.
In its nest.



Will get some photos of the young if they are successful!!

Was recently on Holidays at Harrington at the mouth of the Manning River and managed to grab some pics of these pelicans.

Mine mine mine mine!!!!



And this fella just relaxing

some wild kooka's

playing around with the new 100-400,i think in im love!....

Yellow tailed black cockatoo, first 2 photos are females, third one is the male.