Sunday, March 13, 2011

Brown Honeyeater

Nearly every morning before it is light, one of these little birds starts singing in my yard. Brown Honeyeaters (Lichmera indistincta) are small - only 12-16cms - and easier to hear than see. However, the ones that are in my yard seem to be used to me and as long as I make gentle noises and let them know I am coming down their way they let me get quite close. This one was sitting in one of the Callistemon trees which is an Australian native tree. It was preening first one side then the other and finished up by reaching right over its back and catching its tail and giving that a good preen as well.
This little video has a Brown Honeyeater singing in one of the trees.

For more bird photos visit the Bird Photography Weekly.

13 comments:

  1. You have a nice blog! I would love to follow up!

    Kah Wai
    http://kwbirding.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Really cool Mick! Great shots f the Brown Honeyeater! This bird obviously trusts you to allow you to get that close and be relaxed enough to preen for you.

    I love that last shot where it looks like it is saying "well, what do you think of that?"

    ReplyDelete
  3. How wonderful they let you so close.

    Thanks for adding the video, it was great to hear it sing.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for commenting Kah-Wai Lin, Larry and gwendolen. I certainly enjoy having these birds in my yard and its even better that they let me get close.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mick if those guys are only 12cms I think those photographs are very, very good but showing a bit of fieldcraft by aproaching quietly is essentail, just as you say.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Phil, last year I invested in a nice big lens! A Sigma 150-500 and it has certainly made things a lot easier.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Interesting mark behind the eye- I wonder where that comes from?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Mike, if you mean that little yellow patch at the back of the eye then that is one of the ways to ID this bird.

    ReplyDelete
  9. 12cm - That is a tiny bird-great photos! Thanks for including the video also!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Great pictures of this wonderful little bird. What a nice start to the day it must be when you hear the Honeyeater's beautiful song.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hi April, I do enjoy hearing it - especially before anything else is making any noise.

    ReplyDelete
  12. HI Mick,Neat job with the Honey eater! He has looks of our Sunbirds.

    ReplyDelete