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This robin is one of my favourite birds and we have one that inhabits the scrub in our backyard.
I call it the piper at the gates of dawn*, being the first one to start off the morning chorus.
It's also usually the last bird to call in the evening.

Some fresh seed in the feeder brought in a couple of unusual visitors, a pair of King Parrots, which I've only seen fly over our place occasionally. These two weren't shy and I assume they may have utilized some other feeders in the neighbourhood. Another bird to drop in for the first time a few days later was this large pigeon. The news must be getting around that there's a free feed at the our place!

These are normally a shy, rain-forest dwelling, fruit eating species and it may be the case that these birds have also become more confiding around human habitation, especially with the destruction of their natural habitat and their reliance on the introduced Camphor Laurel tree. This cousin of the above mentioned bird was spotted by Clare sitting on the roof of our van out front.
A beautiful, pure white racing (or feral) pigeon that on closer inspection was bleeding from wounds in it's breast and rump. Maybe a raptor attack? We have three species of Goshawks on our backyard list.A distinct possibility! But most probably a Peregrine Falcon, the bane of pigeon fanciers worldwide. This was one lucky bird and in an attempted rescue operation it flew off when I tried to throw a towel over it. It took off strongly and disappeared into the distance hopefully to survive another day. The culprit may have been one of these magnificent killers, a Brown Goshawk. This one I saw recently at the Cooroy wetlands scaring the wits out of the nearby feathered inhabitants.

This bird was also spotted at the wetlands, singing for all its worth and obviously not too worried about killer raptors!


Posted by John Kooistra at 10:27 PM Labels: Australian King Parrot, Brown Goshawk, Cooroy Wetlands, Eastern Yellow Robin, Olive-backed Oriole, White-headed Pigeon

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