Wing It

I have to admit before I moved to Australia, I was a little nervous about the wildlife. I expected snakes and spiders, neither of which I have seen by the way, but what I was not prepared for was the birds. I am not a bird lover, in fact, I don’t even care to walk through aviaries at the zoo. But these birds are unlike anything I have seen or heard before, so I just had to share them with you. All of the pictures below were taken in my neighborhood.

Australian Magpie

The first bird I want to show you is the Australian Magpie. It is considered one of Australia’s most accomplished songbirds with an amazing range of vocalizations.

Please excuse the video quality of this video, but it clearly shows the vocal range of the Magpie.

Rainbow Lorikeet

The second bird is the Rainbow Lorikeet. It is a species of parrot found in Australia. They are very territorial and often fight off smaller birds as well as the larger Australian Magpie.

When I took this picture, there was a large flock of Lorikeets singing in the tree.

Australian White Ibis

This is the Australian White Ibis. These birds migrated to urban areas in the 1970’s. They are referred to as “Bin Chickens” or “Garbage Bin Birds”. When you watch both videos, you will clearly understand the origin of the nicknames.

This video was taken in a park about two miles from my apartment.

Flying Fox

The final bird I want to tell you about is the Flying Fox. Flying Foxes are really bats, or more accurately mega-bats. There are three species of flying Foxes in Sydney, Grey-Headed Flying-Fox, Black Flying-Fox and Little Red Flying-Fox. I have seen a few Flying-Foxes in my neighborhood, but because it was at night, I could not see the color. The adults can have an average wingspan up to 3.3 feet. (Now you know why I did not even try to get a picture!)

I find the natural world to be the most the fascinating part of living in Australia. Sure the cities are exciting with great food, wine, and shopping, but I’m most in awe of landscape, animals, beaches and even the snakes and birds. The natural world here in Austalia is eccentric, unparalleled to anything I personally have seen before, and always to be respected.