Blue Faced Honeyeaters

Blue Faced Honeyeaters

 

I was working in the garden the other day. I was mowing grass and  even above the sound of the mower,  I could hear this awful ruckus from the other end of the house.

As I came round the corner to see what was happening the noise became even louder.

In a tree I could make out a lot of commotion. Indian mynas and and blackbirds were screaming at something amongst the inner branches. As I arrived a pair of magpies joined in to join the fuss.

I put on my best school teacher's voice and called out "What's going on here?"

The mynas, blackbirds and magpies all flew off and sat on the electricity wires nearby. My school teacher voice still works, at least on birds. There they sat, quietly, fluffing up their feathers, and looking back with great interest.

Much of the noise continued. After some further peering between branches, I could make out a pair of young, blue faced honeyeaters.  For young birds, they could make a lot of noise.

With a rush of wings, another two honeyeaters flew off a higher branch in the tree, chasing away the birds still watching from the power lines.

This pair, whom I assumed to be the parents, then sat as the young ones continued with their noise making. They continued for a good ten minutes, before the parents got tired of the 'grizzling'. They flew back into  the tree, looped around a few times, gathered up the children and flew away.