A juvenile White-eared Honeyeater, aged by its brownish
head, has been visiting our bird baths the last couple of days.
Since mid-morning today up to 3 Grey Currawongs have been feeding
in our fig tree, at least one is a youngster, and has been making those
delightful currawong begging noises every now and then. The young bird
(or birds) are now out of sight in a large dense tree next door, I can
hear them clearly as the adults fly in with beakfuls of fig for them.
Half an hour ago I heard Dollarbird calls and on
investigating found a fledgling perched rather precariously on a dead branch in
our backyard, gack-gacking away loudly, apparently to itself. Its colouring was
mostly dull, lacking the violet throat patch of an adult but it did have some green
and blue in its wing. Its beak was whitish with a dark patch on the upper
mandible. Eventually it flew off, looking very clumsy and short tailed, and
almost immediately an adult, that had probably been watching from a tree in the
nature reserve the whole time, swooped in and joined it. The two disappeared
north, the young bird still calling.
cheers
Steve
