Blue-faced Honeyeater

This post is for World Bird Wednesday.

I thought it was amusing when I watched a young Blue-faced Honeyeater try to chase a young Butcherbird out of territory that it claimed. (See post of January 18.) However, the same family of Blue-faced Honeyeaters are now warning me that part of the garden belongs to them! When I walk down that way one or the other of them immediately starts scolding and pretty soon there are a number of them sitting in different trees and shrubs and all telling me to get out of their territory. This is an adult bird showing the blue color that gives it its name. As I said before, these birds are noisy and aggressive!

Garden Birds

This post is for World Bird Wednesday.

Over the last few days I have been hearing the sounds of young birds in the trees at the back of my yard. When I went out to investigate the other afternoon I found two young Pied Butcherbirds (Cracticus nigrogularis) sitting up in the tree. The adult bird flew off as I appeared but the two youngsters sat and watched me with what appeared to be great interest.
(Butcherbirds catch and eat anything smaller and slower than themselves and often hang it up on a small branch and eat it held in this position.)
After watching me silently for some time one of the young birds began to sing a few rather tentative notes of the adults' song. A young Blue-faced Honeyeater (Entomyzon cyanotis) did not like these two young birds so close to territory that it claimed for itself and came down into the same tree and gradually hopped closer.
(Blue-faced Honeyeaters can be most aggressive. They usually act as a group/pack and swoop and attack in a massed group! They have my cat completely terrified and she flees immediately they find her by herself in the yard. When they try these same tactics on the dog, however, she takes it as permission to attack the attacker! It ends up with the birds sitting out of reach and scolding while the poor dog dances around underneath!)
This bird was a young one as the two patches over its eyes were still a greenish color rather than the bright blue of the adult. It hopped down the tree. It peered down from the branch above and clicked its beak aggressively. It eventually even perched on the same branch. The Butcherbird ignored it, and, without the group to help it, the Honeyeater eventually gave up and flew off.

Blue-faced Honeyeaters on nest

The other week friends called me around to their house to see a pair of Blue-faced Honeyeaters which had a nest in a palm tree in their yard. The palm is a Bismarkia. The palm frond was folded up - I don't know if the birds had managed this or how it had happened. The fronds on this same palm species in my yard open almost immediately they shoot up. The birds had also managed to fold part of the frond down in the front to make easier access to the nest. I saw two nearly fledged chicks and both adults.
As usual I took multiple photos. I saw an adult carrying away something white from the nest but when I examined the photos on my computer I saw this! I assume it is a faecal sack being taken away from the nest.

Juvenile Blue-faced Honeyeater

Yesterday I heard noises that sounded like a juvenile Blue-faced Honeyeater and when I went out to check the grevillea bush I found this little fellow. It looked as if it was not quite sure what to make of its new environment.

Blue-faced Honeyeaters - and a Sea Eagle

I said in my last post that Blue-faced Honeyeaters were noisy and aggressive! Well here's the proof about aggressive! This photo was taken this morning at Inskip Point. I count six of them all annoying the Sea Eagle!
Click on the photo to see a larger view.
Some time later another Sea Eagle flew off over the sand flats and I photographed it soaring out there. From the underneath pattern on it's wings it looks like a juvenile to me.

Blue-faced Honeyeater

These birds are very common around my yard. They eat a varied diet including nectar, insects and fruits. Sometimes they are called the Banana Bird. Their most striking feature is the large bare skin patch around the eye which in mature birds is a lovely bright blue color. In young birds it is greenish colored. I have cropped one of the photos to show this eye patch.
They are noisy and aggressive birds - both to other smaller birds and to anything else that they see as invading their territory. They leave my dog alone as she is not a bit scared of them but they have the cat terrified. If they manage to catch the cat out in the open then a whole group of them will fly around scolding and swooping and trying to peck her. Usually at this point the dog delights in rescuing the cat and seeing off the birds!
For great bird photos visit the Bird Photography Weekly.

Blue-faced Honeyeater

This is a follow-up to the previous post and my first attempt to get a video onto my blog. Hope it works! It is a video of the very noisy juvenile Blue-faced Honeyeater that is still calling for attention from the adult.

Noisy Birds

Yesterday the predicted cold weather arrived from down south. Before the sun rose there was even a touch of frost on some dry grass next door. When the sun got up high enough to warm things up a little, every bird in the neighbourhood seemed to want to comment on conditions.

The Rainbow Lorikeets were around and as noisy as they usually are. I heard Noisy Friarbirds and had a brief look at some Spangled Drongos before they flew off. The Figbirds were making a lot of noise in both the big pine tree next door and also out on the power lines beside the road.

Male Figbird

A juvenile Pied Butcherbird joined the group on the wire.

The noisiest of all were the Blue-faced Honeyeaters. One juvenile, especially, sat and simply screamed for some adult to come and feed it. As soon as it had been fed it started the same noisy behavior again.

Juvenile Blue-faced Honeyeater

Blue-faced Honeyeater

A Kookaburra was sitting in the big pine tree next door and apparently objected to the noise. It hopped closer to the noisiest youngster in the tree – and was immediately mobbed by a whole group of birds until it flew off with a disgusted squawk. The Blue-faced Honeyeaters are such aggressive birds. I have frequently seen them mobbing and chasing off both cats and dogs.

Kookaburra