Eastern Spine-bill & Red Wattlebird

SOME LIFE AFTER WINTERY DAYS

It has been very damp and dark for the last few weeks in Kilmore. It has been hard to get out and see what is happening. The few times I have been out, everything seems to be dampened by the cool and misty air. When it has stopped drizzling, the moisture just continues to drip, drip, drip from the air, like a kitchen squeegee dripping into a sink.

Today there was some beautiful winter sunshine as the day went on and the temperatures rose a little. There were some pretty visitors to the grevillea bushes in my garden.


The Eastern Spine-bill (Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris) was there first.

Strange name. Acanthus is a green plant with a spiny shaped leaves. Maybe that is a connection. Ryhnchus, as in ornithorhyncus, the duck-billed platypus,or perhaps more literally, bird billed platypus (ornith). Thus spine-bill. And the Specific name Tenuirostris, Wikipedia tells me is made up of the Latin word for narrow, tenuis  and rostris meaning a beak like projection. There you have it, Spine-bill, Spine-bill. Such a good name, they used it twice.

Anyway the Spine-bill was there, happily among the grevillea flowers, paying very little attention to me. As soon as the wattle bird arrived, the other was gone like a flash. These red-wattled birds are very aggressive and very noisy. There are so many of them around this part of Victoria, many other birds struggle to be free of their unwanted attention. (Anthochaera carunculata). The  genus name means flower lover and the species name carunculata is from the Latin word for a small piece of meat, which I assume relates to the small red wattles. 

The wattle bird sat on a tree sedately on a tree branch for a few moments and then, called by his relatives, flew off. The Spine-bill immediately emerged from wherever he or she had been hiding and,  afraid no longer, continued feeding.