Rocky perches

I was looking through recent images and noticed images of three different species perched on rocky perches.

Noisy Miner (Manorina melanocephala}
1/1000, f/5.6, ISO 3200

Noisy Miners often forage on the ground for invertebrates. They also take nectar, and the sugary lerp that is produced by psyllids as a kind of protective ‘tent’. By taking lerp from leaves and leaving the insect they effectively farm these insects.

Two other miner species are very similar. I often see Yellow-throated Miners on my travels and may have seen the endangered Black-eared Miner in the distance when visiting Gluepot Reserve (but probably didn’t).

Superb Fairy-wren (Malurus cyaneus) – male
1/2000, f/5.6, ISO 800

Fairy-wrens manage to look adorable regardless of their perch. The bird above is a non-breeding male. Adult females also have bluish tails but they have obvious brown bills and lores. Just to confuse things a little more, young males have brown bills that gradually become darker.

Willie Wagtail (Rhipidura leucophrys)
1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 800

This Willie Wagtail was foraging at the beach. It seemed happy to see me settle nearby; I must have stirred up some interesting little critters.

Happy birding

Kim

PS Thank you for the lovely feedback on last week’s anniversary post

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Alyssa

August 5, 2017 at 7:16 pm · Reply

Gorgeous little birds, all ones that I love! The fairy wren is my favourite here though, it looks so sweet and the rocks beneath its feet look very picturesque.

lirralirra

August 5, 2017 at 10:04 pm · Reply

Fairy-wrens are precious little birds, I’m glad you like the images

Cloudia

July 22, 2017 at 7:10 am · Reply

Inspiring skill for me to aspire to! Thank you

lirralirra

July 27, 2017 at 11:09 pm · Reply

Good luck with your photography Cloudia, email me if you have any questions I might be able to help with