lirralirra

When I spotted tiny Spotted Pardalotes in my garden this week I hoped to get some photographs to share.

These exquisitely marked little birds spend most of their time foraging for psyllids in the canopy. I hear their loud call much more often than I see them. They have a three note call, with the second two notes being higher pitched than the first: I don’t always hear the first, lower note.

The rose between two thorns, above, is a female. She is more subtly marked than the male but still absolutely stunning. The spots on her head are yellow rather than white and she doesn’t have a yellow throat.

The male Spotted Pardalote is more contrasty, with his bright colours, black head with white spots, white eyebrow, bright yellow throat and a red rump.

At approximately 9cm and 8g, these tiny birds are often hard to spot, and when spotted they can be tricky to identify until their colours are glimpsed in good light. Photographing these birds was quite comical, and involved a lot of luck. I set up beneath my hide and waited, not just for the birds to arrive (hopefully) but also for the light to improve (hopefully) enough to press the shutter button. ISO 1600 is my preferred highest setting but I went to ISO 2500 to capture the male.

As I was peering through the lens I was super puzzled by the amount of movement that I stupidly presumed was coming from my tripod. I tightened everything but the movement didn’t stop. I felt pretty silly when I realised it was the rose cane moving in the wind. Trying to focus on those tiny eyes when the birds were only there for a moment, constantly looking around and changing direction, and when the cane was moving up and down in the wind… it was interesting!

I hope you enjoy this week’s lockdown lovelies, I’ll try to find something beautiful to photograph for next week’s post.

Happy birding from home, Kim

~ Facebook page Kim Wormald – lirralirra
~ Facebook group  Ethical Bird Photography