Thursday, June 3, 2010

Birds, Y'all. Birds!

One of the first things that struck me when we moved to Australia was the incredible array of birds here. The first time I saw a sulphur crested cockatoo fly by, I seriously thought that it had escaped from a pet store or someone's birdcage. It just seemed so odd that such fantastic birds should just be, like, hanging out in your average suburban neighborhood. And their screech! Geez. They sound like little velociraptors or something. (See some of those on our porch here!) There's also a bird here--I think it's a raven--that sounds like a baby crying. It took several weeks of us living here before I didn't go check on Ava when I heard it.

One of the most beautiful birds we see here is the rainbow lorikeet. We usually only catch glimpses of them--they fly very fast and are usually pretty high up in the trees. So I've rarely gotten to see them up close. On our holiday last week, we had a large tree outside our balcony and it was often full of lorikeets. They would land on the railing and hang out there. One morning Jason's dad and the kids got to feed some.







I like this one--the way the lorikeets are all lined up, I expect them to put on top hats and do a little dance or something.


I prefer to watch and photograph rather than participate in the bird feedings. For some reason, birds in groups skeev me out a little. This probably does not surprise you. Given my issues with, like, living things. But aren't they beautiful?


So, rainbow lorikeets. A definite highlight from our week away. So much so that Nate pretended to be one and had to be called "Lorikeet" for the next day and a half.

8 comments:

  1. Wow, so many and so close! They must have been used to people? I would have let the crawl all over my shoulders.

    This almost makes up for the leech, Australia.

    Great pics!

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  2. Such pretty birds! I would have let them roam all over me too Becky.

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  3. You know,your Dad got me interested
    in birdwatching a few years ago. He must have been beside himself in Australia!

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  4. Awwwww! (That "aw" was much longer in real life.)
    So beautiful. I've often thought about how colorful Australia's birds are compared to the many brown and black birds over here.
    We still get pretty excited about blue jays and yellow finches so we'd go berserk over rainbow-colored birds!

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  5. Yeah, that's so crazy to imagine wild birds flying around in your neighborhood. The Girling's have to ward off the monkies. Seriously, one monkey came down and snatched on of the boys sandwich in a tupperware (and he dropped it when Jill shook her water bottle at him). And another one tried to sneak an ice cream cone from Julia's hand. At least your birdies are nice ;).

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  6. When we were there in July, I was talking with an Aussie on the street in Parramatta.  He asked me about what I was doing there and what I thought of Australia.  Somewhere in my response, I talked about the amazing birds.  He seemed a little surprised.  Then he recalled seeing a travel promo spot on tv when he was in San Francisco.  He hadn't really paid a lot of attention to the astonishing birds all around him. Makes you wonder what we miss all around us everyday just because we are  too used to it.

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  7. Those are just wild birds? Just hopping on your hands? That is crazy. Besides the fact that they are insanely gorgeous.

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