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

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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.
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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

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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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July 21st, 2017 | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Category: Birds, Noisy Miner, Superb Fairy-wren, Willie Wagtail | 10 comments
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