Saturday 21 December 2013

The Birds of Adelaide

As always I was keen to see some birds on my recent trip to Adelaide. Some were easy to find, others remained elusive.

Swans (Cygnus atratus) were easy,
they're everywhere down near the river. 

Dusky Moorhens (Gallinula tenebrosa) were easy too.
They had their chicks with them this day. 

There was a bit of aggro between the swans and the moorhens.
I wasn't quite sure why. 

It took me a while to realise that these two were something different.
A new species for me!

Black-tailed Native-hens.
(Tribonyx ventralis)

Australasian Darter
(Anhinga novaehollandiae)

Little Black Cormorant
(Phalacrocorax sulcirostris)
I was very keen to find a musk lorikeet as it would have been another new species for me. While I found a lot of lorikeets, they were all rainbow lorikeets. Funny thing is a few days after I got home I saw musk lorikeets here- when I never had before!

Rainbow Lorikeet
(Trichoglossus haematodus)
Similarly, I was keen to find Adelaide Rosellas. And of course I only found the already familiar Eastern Rosellas.

Eastern Rosellas
(Platycercus eximius)

There were lots of ducklings everywhere

Hardhead duck
(Aythya australis)

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12 comments:

  1. skiourophile21 December 2013 at 14:51

    Plenty of those coloured parrots in our garden at the moment wiping out the fruit trees!

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  2. Melissa Wiebe21 December 2013 at 18:32

    Love the rainbow lorikeet.

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  3. Unknown21 December 2013 at 22:38

    The birds are so beautiful, especially the black swans. Have a great day, Louise!

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  4. grammajudyb22 December 2013 at 00:23

    I always love looking at your birding photos. I was thinking to myself, "are all their birds dark?" and then your next pic was of a rainbow lorikeet and a then a eastern rosella. Nope, colorful one abound in Australia too! Thanks for putting a bright spot in my rather drab and wintry day.

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  5. Anonymous22 December 2013 at 01:43

    You have birds, and I have birds, but how different the environs! Take a look at my Sat. Snapshot and you'll see. ;) And so beautiful the colors of yours.

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  6. Sheila (Bookjourney)22 December 2013 at 02:59

    Greta pics - birds are so fascinating!

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  7. Susan Lindquist22 December 2013 at 03:03

    That black swan is just lovely! And the rainbow lorikeet is just so vivid! Beautiful captures, this week! Merry Christmas!

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  8. Joy22 December 2013 at 03:08

    Love learning some Australian bird identities. We have rainbow lorikeets at the zoo here, but nothing with so many colors in the wild.

    That first photo of the swan is stunning -- you captured the perfect pose and the colors & composition are wonderful.

    Joy's Book Blog

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  9. Vicki22 December 2013 at 08:48

    Love your photos! Photos of birds are always interesting to me.

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  10. bermudaonion22 December 2013 at 12:46

    Beautiful birds, especially the lorikeet.

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  11. Deb Nance at Readerbuzz24 December 2013 at 01:38

    We live in one of the best spots in the US for birders (or so they tell me) but I never see birds like this.

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  12. Literary Relish29 December 2013 at 00:00

    The Rainbow Lorikeets are show stoppers! It seems entirely alien that you could have such colourful birds just casually sitting in your gardens. The birds here in the UK generally blend into the dusky landscape. I've just put out their Christmas fat balls :-D

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