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It’s fig time.

Silvereyes visit the fig tree early each morning at this time of year and sometimes I can capture a photograph as the early morning sun shines low through the branches of the nearby apricot tree. The warm light looks beautiful on these tiny birds, they glow, especially against a shadowed background.

They are surprisingly agile when eating figs or when savouring nectar from the bottlebrush flowers (shots I will share another time). They twist around the small branches and their fine bills make short work of the sweet, ripe figs.

Sometimes they seem to pause and look towards me, looking surprisingly innocent.

Although the background can look quite expansive it’s often a tiny area, which is easier to imagine when you think of these birds as being less than half the size of your hand. The soft brown background in the shot above is a tiny patch of dried grass clippings.

Talking of backgrounds, the browns and greens in this shot are of a wattle tree bedecked with brown seed pods. I love the upright stance of this little Silvereye as it glances towards me before tucking into the fig beside it.

Lighting makes a huge difference to a shot. The warm glow of the early morning and late afternoon generally creates a much nicer photograph. The shadows are long, contrast is low, detail is exquisite. Overcast days can give a reasonable shot too, if the ISO can go high enough. This shot was taken in awful conditions but I do like the way it shows how thoroughly they enjoy the figs.

My thanks to everyone who contacted me, in a variety of ways, about last week’s duckling post. The Victorian Government has now announced a full 90 days duck shooting season, starting 16 March 2022. We need more kindness in the world, and fewer guns. I’m sickened…

Happy birding, Kim

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