Hi Laurie,
I have had a birdbath on my back deck At Chatswood NSW for many years. It is
just a large cat litter tray cantilevered out from the handrail about 3m above
ground level. It is deep enough for Currawongs to just stand on the bottom.
Sometimes I set up a camera trap there.
S-c Cockies come to drink only & command respect from all other species but
generally wait for other species to finish.
Satin Bowerbirds are next on the pecking order ladder & are very enthusiastic
bathers often spending 10 mins diving under, surfacing & splashing, shaking &
then diving in again.
Little Wattlebirds are the most athletic bathers, diving in deep from fast
flight at one end & zooming out The other to pirouette in flight & do it again,
often in line astern. I have contemplated a glass aquarium to photograph them
underwater, maybe in the future.
Much more action on a hot spring day.
Chris Charles
www.licole.com.au
m("licole","//unsplash.com/");">https:
Sent from my iPhone
> On 13 Jun 2020, at 11:54 am, Laurie Knight <> wrote:
>
> Like many other Australians, I have been working at home during the Covid
> Crisis. I’ve found the best place to work is on a table on the back deck of
> my house, where I am out with the birdlife. The best birds from the deck
> during that time were a couple of Glossy Blacks flying overhead in search of
> casuarinas.
>
> Most days I hear the characteristic plopping sounds of Noisy Miners making
> use of the swimming pool. They like to swoop down from either the pool fence
> or a nearby bottlebrush, briefly settle on the water (sometimes bobbing their
> back under water) before turning around on the water and flying back to their
> launching point. After a feather shuffle or two they generally repeat the
> cycle another couple of times before flying off.
>
> Blue-faced Honeyeaters sometimes also join the party, though they are less
> confident in the water than the miners. They have more off a skipping
> approach, just doing a belly skim and flying off in the same direction.
>
> The Pied Butcherbirds don’t use the pool. They wait till it rains then get
> wet by plopping into the foliage of a lillipilly and enjoy the shower from
> the dripping leaves.
>
> The lorikeets, crows and pigeons have not shown an interest in bathing.
>
> What are other people’s observations of birds bathing in “deep” water [water
> too deep to stand in]? Have people observed large birds [other than
> waterbirds] bathing or species with interesting bathing styles?
>
> Regards, Laurie.
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