Birds in my Garden

Rainbow Lorikeet in my fig tree

After several days of cold weather, and pouring rain — even snow in higher altitudes, which is unheard of in March — the sun is out again, and I’ve spotted a few special birds in my garden.

Because I have figs ripening, I’ve had lots of little rainbow lorikeets visiting, noisy little pirates as they are, but I love them. I took this photo through my bedroom window. You can just see the fig he was eyeing off, at the top of the photo.

And in bigger excitement, a Tawny Frogmouth came to visit my garden too and spent most of the day snoozing in my silver princess gum tree (E. Caesia). They’re nocturnal, so he left around twilight. I hope he visits again. They’re very useful birds as they live on insects, spiders, moths, slugs, wasp and things like that.

You don’t often see them in the city, partly because their camouflage is so good — they look like shaggy lumps of bark on a tree — and they’re quite a large bird, a bit like an owl. They’re also very ugly, but I love them to bits, so was thrilled to see this one in my tree.

Tawny Frogmouth in my gum tree

My neighbor alerted me to its presence — she was pretty excited, too. Here’s a photo I took — he appears to be giving me a dirty look, and he might well have been, but they’re so ugly it might have been a bird smile. Or a wink. <g>