Sunday, July 3, 2011

Scarlet Honeyeater

This post is for Bird Photography Weekly.

It was a beautiful day for a walk along the foreshore at Mullens but a brisk wind meant that the small birds weren't sitting around out in the open. I could hear them back in among the trees but it is thick bush and not easy to see any small birds.
I was interested to see that a pair of Masked Lapwing have apparently claimed the little rocky island as their own.
This used to be a territory occupied by a pair of Pied Oystercatchers but the Masked Lapwings would be aggressive enough to chase almost anything else away. I saw only one Pied Oystercatcher and it was standing well away from the shore on rocks that were only just out of the water.
Around the corner into the area of saltmarsh I was out of the wind but the birds were still well back in the bush. I saw a flash of scarlet and followed slowly until I could see up into the tree where the bird had gone. It was a Scarlet Honeyeater (Myzomela sanguinolenta) - a beautiful bird but always very active. It was up high in a casuarina tree and almost out of reach of even my big lens. It was feeding on mistletoe flowers. Now if I could only take the best bits out of all these photos I would really have a great photo of the bird!

14 comments:

  1. gorgeous bird, even if he didn't want his photo taken!

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  2. Hi Texwisgirl, there's not a lot of tiny scarlet birds around here and none of them sit still for long!

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  3. Great bird, Mick. Don't you wish those annoying tree branches would stay out of the way?

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  4. you could call that bird a redhead. :) It looks a little like a nuthatcher in the shape I think.
    Looks nice.

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  5. Hi Wren, life would certainly be easier for me with fewer tree branches but then I guess there would be fewer birds as well :-)

    Hi NatureFootstep, yes, a very distinctive redhead!

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  6. Lovely bird, Mick! Oh I can relate with you on the frustrations of getting photos of birds in the open. That is my biggest problem here in the Philippines.

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  7. The photos give a good indication of how the bird was moving around the Mistletoe - what a lovely sight! We enjoy your observations Mick.
    Cheers
    Barbara

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  8. Hi Bob, I wonder if the tropical and sub-tropical vegetation makes one more aware of the difficulties of getting good photos of birds up in the trees. Some places I can't even push through the bush.

    Thanks Barbara. I hadn't even realized the mistletoe was flowering until I examined the photos. Now I need to go back there and see if I can find some mistletoe birds.

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  9. The Honeyeater is a spectacular looking bird Mick. What a shame about the windswept weather stopping you getting an even better picture.

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  10. Hi Phil, That's a part of birding I think - always hoping for another opportunity to take a better photo!

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  11. They're tricky little things ... but lovely!

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  12. Indeed a gorgeous bird! Great psot and photos Mick!

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  13. Hi Snail, I agree - very tricky and very lovely.

    Thanks BirdingMaine.

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  14. A lovely colourful little bird to see... many thanks for sharing.

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