lirralirra

A timely species for this time of year, an exquisite Mistletoebird.

Mistletoebird (Dicaeum hirundinaceum)
1/1000, f/7.1, ISO 1600

Mistletoebirds are about 10cm in length and weigh about 9g, super tiny. The male is resplendent with his black, red and white colours. His throat, chest and undertail are bright red while his white underparts are divided vertically with a bold black line. These tiny birds are responsible for ‘planting’ the mistletoe that you’ll often see gracing trees in the bush and along roadsides. They have simple stomachs and excrete sticky mistletoe seeds by wiping them onto branches where the seeds quickly germinate. Environmental scientists used to be concerned about areas with many mistletoe plants parasitising trees but a fairly recent study showed that the number of bird species was higher in direct accordance with mistletoe abundance. Female Mistletoebirds lack the bright colouring of the male; they are grey above, white below and have a salmony-pink undertail. It is often their high-pitched flight call that makes me aware of their presence.

Today I had a long list of jobs to do in the garden which included weeding, planting, being bitten by ants, pruning, being bitten by a pretty black and yellow spider, raking, staking, swallowing a small insect, pulling a stomach muscle while trying to avoid swallowing said insect, misplacing shovel, reorganising the watering system, misplacing secateurs, carting several wheelbarrow loads of prunings and weeds to the ex-veggie patch, rushing to try to get all plants in the ground before the rain arrived, failing but feeling good to have almost finished, enjoyed the refreshing touch of the first large drops of rain, didn’t enjoy them when they became colder, tripped over the reorganised watering system and wished that the dogs would kindly walk themselves this evening.

I’ve been thinking about lirralirra‘s Christmas visitors, wondering who celebrates Christmas and who doesn’t, who will be surrounded with friends and family, and who will be alone. This week’s Mistletoebird comes with my warmest wishes and my hope that this week is good to you and filled with kindness and birdsong.

Happy birding

Kim