Introduction

[Bird]

We have introduced P. domesticus as well, but the house finches are a separate, native species. Haemorhous mexicanus.

We have a lot of hummingbirds in the summer- they come to our trumpet vines. I love seeing them; hummingbirds are tiny tiny tiny (I've done very amateur rehabilitation on a couple stunned/starved hummers, and you can't even tell you're holding them. I am always scared to break them by just breathing near them), but they can be really aggressive and territorial towards each other (they have been known to attack and kill each other with their beaks). We have mostly Broad-tailed (Selasphorus platyceros) and Black-chinned (Archilochus alexanderi) Hummingbirds, a few migratory Rufous (S. rufus) and Calliope (S. calliope) Hummingbirds, and farther south I have seen Anna's Hummingbirds (Calypte anna), which was really exciting.
Also, do you have fairy wrens in your area? Or bowerbirds? Masked Lapwings? We might be getting some Masked Lapwings at our aviary.

 

[Marmot]

I get my ‘house finches’ & my ‘fireplace finches’ confused sometimes , especially when they paint themselves black with creosote & soot: That happened last summer and that poor thing has probably died of black lung already…..

I believe the sugar cube guzzling hummingbird was a Blue-throated Hummingbird (Lapmornis clemencia), as it’s the only one I can find native to my area that resembles it’s color scheme.

Fairy wrens / Bowerbirds / Masked Lapwings ???

None of these are even listed in my guidebook: “The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America” as even potentially native to my area.

 

[Cosmophylla]

Bird, I'm looking forward to looking up all those hummingbirds and learning about them. I don't recall seeing any in captivity here and I think that's maybe because of the possibility of them escaping. If they can get into houses so easily, they can get out of enclosures, haha. But I'll have to look into it... Maybe I missed them at the zoo...

Oh, and that house finch is lovely. I'm going to have to invest in bird books for the rest of the world, in the hope that one day I'll get to travel and see the real thing.

Marmot, fairy wrens, bowerbirds and masked lapwings (aka spur-winged plovers) are Australian birds. That's where I am.

Yes, we have lots of fairy wrens and lapwings here, but not bowerbirds in this region. There is a family of superb fairy wrens Malurus cyaneus ssp. Leggei that has been living here since before we moved in five years ago. They are also daily visitors to our bird baths but haven't come as much lately because we now have a couple of cats (we took in a pregnant stray to prevent more stray kittens, and kept one of the litter. I don't like cats much...) and it has also been extremely/unusually dry for months. The original male we named Lumpy because he had a mangled foot and had to stand on the stumpy end. He disappeared (obviously died) 18 months ago but the female, Sue, found another mate and brought him here. We called him Ring-in the Replacement haha. Sue and Ring-in have mated two or three times successfully through two breeding seasons and they have fledglings with them now. It's funny because non-birders think that all "blue wrens" are blue and are surprised to know the females, young, and males out of season are buff/brown/grey.

This video, not by me, was filmed at the wetlands where I volunteer and sometimes work. http://ibc.lynxeds.com/video/superb-fairy-wren-malurus-cyaneus/male-foraging-through-sparse-bush

Ha! As I write this the wrens have come and are hanging out at the bath outside my bedroom...I can hear their contact calls... High pitched trills. They must know I'm talking about them, haha.

As for masked lapwings... (Hear the call here Vanellus miles...) There is a pair that consistently nests on the roof of a timber yard shed two doors down, and we can see them from our verandah. Sometimes at night they get startled and call out their alarm call, which is pretty loud. We see them on the school oval and the local sports oval...that's the most common place to see lapwings in this state. I've seen them on ovals hundreds of km away. They must love something about ovals (do you call these 'sports grounds'?)

(As I write, the wrens have gone off and now the thornbills have come )

 

[Marmot]

Alright, here’s two more from the vault, and then I’ll stop. In 2012 I went to the Galapagos Islands and saw two of the goofiest looking (as well as the goofiest named) birds ever:

The (equatorial) Galápagos penguin (Spheniscus mendiculus) and The blue-footed booby (Sula nebouxii) -Yes, you’re actually allowed to say “boob” when referring to this bird !

 

[Cosmophylla]

Marmot, I like the crab chilling on the rock face there.

We have Little Penguins (Eudyptula minor, formerly Fairy Penguin) here in South Australia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_penguin


And while we have no boobies in the south (boobies being tropical birds) we have gannets, which are in the same family and look pretty similar. They are just beautiful to watch in flight.
http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/species/Morus-serrator

I'm so envious that you visited the Galapagos!!!!!

 

[Bird]

Hummingbirds require a lot of specialized care, so it is difficult to find many in captivity. As well as their diet and habitat needs, they are very delicate, which makes it hard to provide proper veterinary care.
If you want field guides for America, I would recommend the Sibley Guides Marmot mentioned, or Peterson. But a number of other publishers have made very good photographic books, National Geographic and the like.
Fairy wrens are adorable. I'm very envious of you. I want to visit Australia. We'll have to swap for a month .
I am also particularly fond of Lapwings. My brother was in Australia a while back, and he would send me pictures of them.
Marmot, those boobies are adorable! And penguins! I want to go to the Galapagos! I have always wanted to see wild boobies, and gannets, and all those beautiful seabirds.
I love birds! I get a little giddy after thinking/talking/writing about them. Isn't it wonderful how many incredible and unique species live all over? And isn't it depressing to think we will probably never see all of them? Or even most of them? Oh well.

 

[Cosmophylla]

Thanks for the field guide tips! I'll look for those. I was thinking of trying out an app but they are pretty expensive to buy the full app...I think I'll go hunting at the charity shops...I often see old books there.

I agree about the giddiness, I'm a little calmer these days, out of necessity. I used to jump up and run outside every time I heard a black cockatoo to try to spot it flying, but I've had ME/chronic fatigue syndrome since July so I literally haven't been able to jump up and run anywhere, haha! I'm getting better, at least.

Bird, you like lapwings: do you like other types of plover/dotterel? We have quite a few types here. At the wetlands we have red-kneed dotterels and black-fronted dotterels. They are tiny and cute. We also have little hooded plovers on the beaches but they have been in decline for years because their eggs, which they lay on the sand, get trampled by humans or eaten by dogs. There has been a campaign for the past few years to educate the general public about their nesting habits and to discourage beach goers from letting dogs run off-leash and walking up at the high tide line where the eggs are.

http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/forum/Totness-Laratinga Here you can see black fronted dotterel and red kneed dotterel at the bottom of the pics.

http://aussiebirder.com/tag/red-kneed-dotterel/ And here are some more pics at Laratinga, to give you both an idea of just a few of the birds I see in my local area.

Speaking of wrens, one I really want to see is the southern emu wren. They are endangered here.

So lovely! Those tail feathers are like emu feathers.

Emus are pretty amazing, too!!! Sometimes I forget they are birds because they're so big, haha.

 

[Myway]

Welcome. There was a bird seminar that I went to in the last few months. It was really good. I hadn't really cared about birds, but after that seminar I like looking up birds in bird books. Birds aren't one of my interests yet though. It is hard to get me hooked on something. Glad you here. Hopefully you will tell us more about birds and correct some of our bird thinking to match yours. That would be kind of cool if we understood birds like you do.

 

[Bird]

I love plovers, etc.! Our main plover is the darling Killdeer. Also, I adore emus. I am trying very hard to convince my parents to let me raise them.
And now I want to research the emu wren, because I have not learned that one. I am enchanted by what little I have seen, though.
Anything chronic is horrid, but I expect you have adjusted. I am very sorry, though. But aren't birds wonderful in that they can meet you at your energy/interest level? If one has boundless energy, they can go leaping and skipping about on birding trips. On the other hand, it is possible to enjoy beautiful birds by your window, or through reading books in your armchair.

 

[Bird]

Welcome. There was a bird seminar that I went to in the last few months. It was really good. I hadn't really cared about birds, but after that seminar I like looking up birds in bird books. Birds aren't one of my interests yet though. It is hard to get me hooked on something. Glad you here. Hopefully you will tell us more about birds and correct some of our bird thinking to match yours. That would be kind of cool if we understood birds like you do.

. I am always happy to talk about birds. And, rest assured, I am quite prone to correcting people's misconceptions about birds...(Do you know how many people think birds are unintelligent!?! Or that vultures are ugly (that may be an opinion, but it is, in my opinion, uneducated.)? Or that parrots make good pets?). It is distressing.
Thank you for your welcome.