I started birding with my bf a few months before the pandemic hit. He's on binoculars and I take photos. We’ve been visiting local parks and wetlands within Greater Melbourne, and currently have 145 species sighted. Hoping to explore more of Victoria once lockdown’s over.
It’s such a fun activity and I recommend you give it a try next time you go out! Just use a bird ID app and try to ID one bird you saw on your walk, you’ll build up the knowledge gradually and there will be times when you’re in your garden and hear a bird call, you’d be able to think to yourself: “hey, I recognise that call! Sounds like a maggie but it's prettier and more flute like, so it’s a butcherbird.”
We walk around counting birds on the app Ebird, it’s a world wide bird sighting database. I don’t really wait or plan for my shots, I can get a few decent pics on each walk by doing this, most of the time nothing stunning, but I like the freedom of being in the moment enjoying nature and not forcing anything to happen (the pictures I share obviously are my best shots!).
My setup is a Nikon D500 with a Tamron 150-600mm lens. The bird ID app I use is Merlin Birds, developed by Ebird as well. I also refer to a book called The Australian Bird Guide, an illustrated guide published by CSIRO.
Thats lovely of you Deebasser,.I suggest you see
www.davidfreedmanart,com,au
Many have told me this book on AUSTRALIA'S BIRDS is the most beautiful bird book ever published in Australia,It has a forward penned by the great international bird authority and illustrator Robin Hill.
Im sure you would love it as it has 240 of my bird illustrations as well as informative and light hearted text. Its the perfect fathers day present .
Its
I wish my dad were still alive so I could gift this to him. He bought me my very own field guide when he and mum split and he moved 350km away, so I'd have something to use at home.
I inherited his battered old guides when he passed. He used to sketch birds when he was younger; I have a couple of prints on my walls that he did when he was in his early thirties. He had started to get back into drawing in the years after he beat cancer the first time, before it took him the second time.
I’m sorry to hear that sad story . He also left you with a love for birds. A precious gift .
My book is more an art book than a field book[Instagram ](david.freedman.artist/)
I'm a pretty keen birder from England, moved to Melbourne 2 years ago - and this is fantastic!
I haven't been out properly as I haven't got around to buying binocs yet but you have deffo inspired me!
Thanks!
I love your photos! Birding is fun. Just a hint for the ravens: Little ravens are more often seen in flocks and are smaller than the Australian raven, and the Australian raven tends to have a bit of a 'beard' of sorts and is generally more solitary and also a bit bigger than our little ravens. From the photo, that looks like a Little Raven! 😊
Developed by Cornell Lab as well! Nice. Is this a new app? Haven't heard of it but excited to try it out!! I have so many recorded calls that I have no idea who they belong to
Pretty sure they are Grey Butcherbirds, not Pied ones (which are more monochromatic). We have a pair of Greys that occasionally follow the Magpies into our yard. Exceptionally cute (and very curious) things.
Cracking photo's regardless!
Between putting up a feeder and birdbath, and having a fairly sheltered front yard (back unit on a large block so the yard is encircled by trees and away from the roads) we're lucky enough to have them come to us. Every morning I chuck some sunflower seed in the feeder and a little honeyeater feed on some finely sliced apple and the cat gets to sit in the window and watch the all day show... At least until the lorikeets arrive and bully everyone else away.
We're close to Glenburnie Rd, which is a private road (so no sidewalks unfortunately) with some huge wooded properties and phenomenal bird diversity. The street has a real Deliverance vibe to it; but to the best of my knowledge no birdwatchers have gone missing :P
You'll see tons of Magpies, Kookaburras, currawongs, eastern and crimson rosellas, rainbow lorikeets, galahs, both types of mynahs, spotted doves, whatever those pigeons with the little mohawk are called, wattle birds, ducks and even a King Parrot or two if your lucky (we've had them at the feeder only a couple of times, beautiful birds!)
Also if you head towards the city, there's a footy oval and park on Canterbury Rd, just past Middleborough Rd (Blackburn / Box Hill I think) that's often Bin Chicken central.
I'll make sure to add a pretty one next post~ I've actually only seen them once in a garbage dump, ie. when this photo was taken, but I personally prefer the bin chicken look!
When lockdown is over you should come out to the Edithvale-Seaford wetlands. I see a lot of ibis at Edithvale Common, but there's walking tracks all along the wetlands that can give you some great sightings.
Fun fact: Magpies, butcherbirds and currawongs are all in the same taxonomic family!
I think those butcherbirds are grey instead of pied, though. The pied ones tend to occur much further north - I’ve seen them in Queensland but not in Victoria.
Awesome post! Great pics and I really appreciate the info.
You might be interested in [birdlife Australia](https://direct.birdlife.org.au/). I participated in their backyard bird count event last year, which involved sitting in my yard for timed sessions and entering the birds seen in to the app. I enjoyed the mindfulness and learned to identify and differentiate some birds. Plenty more to learn though! It was in October so might be coming up again soon. Damn, can’t believe that was nearly a year ago.
I'm not too sure, but just being kind to our environment is nice enough!
Other things can include restricting your cat or walking it on a leash, and explaining it to friends that have outdoor cats, "researchers found domestic cats kill 230m native Australian animals each year" you can search for similar articles online.
Put some water out for birds in summer. And give the bird to the mynas when you see them.
I bought some "honeyeater feed" (it's like a powdery stuff you mix with fruit) after reading in here that you shouldn't give lorikeets seed... The lorikeets won't touch the stuff (so much for that idea), but the wattle birds LOVE it.
The wattle birds also HATE indian mynas and in our case will aggressively chase them out of the yard. Unfortunately they have a penchant for picking fights with some of the birds we would prefer to keep in the yard as well (they tend to bully Rosellas, lorikeets will stand their ground though).
In the mynas defence they are just trying to get by and apparently studies have shown they are not negatively impacting the local variety. Blackbirds are also an invasive species but once you've heard one of them singing you'd never want your yard to be without them.
Thanks for posting these! Seeing Superb fairy-wrens on my daily walks is pretty much the highlight of my days lately, hopefully posts like these will get more people into birding.
Thanks for this! I am relatively new to Melbourne and didn’t realise I was looking at a Raven on my walk home. It was so beautiful I had to stop and stare at it, so we had a stare off. I backed down.
Interesting to see Mynahs are pests here too! Back home a pair built a nest near our balcony and would swoop at us even if we were inside.
Pretty neat that it knew you were there, here the noisy miners are the ones that keep swooping. Corvids are so smart and curious, I like staring at magpies and watching their heads tilt.
Great post. I also photograph birds, well any wildlife I can find. Its a pity about the common myna, nice looking birds. Introduced and known to go around destroying eggs of our native birds. I'll definately be keeping a look out for more posts from you.
Quick question. Do you post on instagram at all as I would definately follow you if so? I've never thought of posting my photos on reddit oddly enough.
I don't use Instagram very often, only use it to stare in awe at Jan Wegener's photos. But I'd love to check your photos out and give it a follow! Or please post on Reddit and hopefully more people will fall in love with our aussie birds~
Love your nature photos! Do we have scorpions and centipedes over here...??
And Jan's my favourite bird photographer out there, it's like oil painting. He's based in Melbourne too! He sets his shots up though, he makes perches (and I think uses food and water)? So I'm not too sure how to feel about the methods.
I'm pretty sure scorpions and centrepedes are found over most of australia, there's many species of both so surely there's some in melbourne. I'm in bendigo so only a couple hours north and scorpions are pretty common here, photographed 3 more today. Unlike birds, reptiles and spiders I don't know much about scorpions. Would love to be able to give the exact species when posting photos.
A lot of people use food to attract birds while using a hide. I like to take them naturally, although some
I've taken at a friends house who often have a bird brick in their garden.
Did not know that!! I'll look out for them if I ever head out of Mel. That's how I like birding as well, just whatever nature shows me. But I'm glad there are photographers like Jan who plan their shots and can share their beautiful photos, so memorising.....
After I moved away from Melbourne I began to forget some of the little things I saw every day. I'm glad I have this subreddit to remind me :) love these photos!
The only redeeming aspect of lockdown are all the birds. Thanks to lockdown, i've essentially become the bird whisperer and i love it.
Hand feeding Magpies, Currawongs, Kookaburras, Nosy Miners and more. Its great.
I know some people see the noisy miners as pests but i fucking love em, their so cute.
Their other nickname is "farmer's friends" because they use the long beaks to clean aphids and other nasties off crops without damaging the fruit. My old man had a few spending time in his fruit trees in Gippsland and loved them.
Unfortunately for them 'bin chickens' is a little more catchy.
Aw man, I love birds. This rules. Thanks. Had any luck on the rosella/lori/parrot front yet? I got lucky and saw two king parrots in my yard in the east about a month back!
Thanks, and king parrots are so cute, they look like watermelons. And yes, I've got a few nice photos of our parrot looking birds, will post another collection !
Thanks for this, it gave me a smile. I had an Australian bird book when I was a kid, it was really old and the drawings weren't particularly accurate, but I used to take it out and see what I could spot. Keep up the good work :)
Can anyone help me identify a bird? It lands daily on my birds of paradise but I can't get a photo of it. It has a brownish upper body with some black on the head. On the lower half is a royal blue and yellow coloring. I tried to google it but wasn't able to find anything?
I started birding with my bf a few months before the pandemic hit. He's on binoculars and I take photos. We’ve been visiting local parks and wetlands within Greater Melbourne, and currently have 145 species sighted. Hoping to explore more of Victoria once lockdown’s over. It’s such a fun activity and I recommend you give it a try next time you go out! Just use a bird ID app and try to ID one bird you saw on your walk, you’ll build up the knowledge gradually and there will be times when you’re in your garden and hear a bird call, you’d be able to think to yourself: “hey, I recognise that call! Sounds like a maggie but it's prettier and more flute like, so it’s a butcherbird.” We walk around counting birds on the app Ebird, it’s a world wide bird sighting database. I don’t really wait or plan for my shots, I can get a few decent pics on each walk by doing this, most of the time nothing stunning, but I like the freedom of being in the moment enjoying nature and not forcing anything to happen (the pictures I share obviously are my best shots!). My setup is a Nikon D500 with a Tamron 150-600mm lens. The bird ID app I use is Merlin Birds, developed by Ebird as well. I also refer to a book called The Australian Bird Guide, an illustrated guide published by CSIRO.
Calling u/davidfreedman ...I miss you!!
Thats lovely of you Deebasser,.I suggest you see www.davidfreedmanart,com,au Many have told me this book on AUSTRALIA'S BIRDS is the most beautiful bird book ever published in Australia,It has a forward penned by the great international bird authority and illustrator Robin Hill. Im sure you would love it as it has 240 of my bird illustrations as well as informative and light hearted text. Its the perfect fathers day present . Its
Beautiful illustrations! Will make a good Christmas present too:)
I wish my dad were still alive so I could gift this to him. He bought me my very own field guide when he and mum split and he moved 350km away, so I'd have something to use at home. I inherited his battered old guides when he passed. He used to sketch birds when he was younger; I have a couple of prints on my walls that he did when he was in his early thirties. He had started to get back into drawing in the years after he beat cancer the first time, before it took him the second time.
I’m sorry to hear that sad story . He also left you with a love for birds. A precious gift . My book is more an art book than a field book[Instagram ](david.freedman.artist/)
david.freedman.artist
I'm a pretty keen birder from England, moved to Melbourne 2 years ago - and this is fantastic! I haven't been out properly as I haven't got around to buying binocs yet but you have deffo inspired me! Thanks!
That's awesome! With the pandemic it is quite hard to do anything, hope you'll enjoy Melbourne and it's birdlife!
I love your photos! Birding is fun. Just a hint for the ravens: Little ravens are more often seen in flocks and are smaller than the Australian raven, and the Australian raven tends to have a bit of a 'beard' of sorts and is generally more solitary and also a bit bigger than our little ravens. From the photo, that looks like a Little Raven! 😊
Thanks for the tips, I will try it next time I see one. I've just been assuming all ravens I see are little.
BirdNET is a fantastic app if you can hear a bird but not quite see it. Amazing how accurate it is, even its 'wild guesses' are almost spot on.
Developed by Cornell Lab as well! Nice. Is this a new app? Haven't heard of it but excited to try it out!! I have so many recorded calls that I have no idea who they belong to
https://birdata.birdlife.org.au/ :-)
Please keep doing what you're doing. You are totally enriching my life. Thank you.
Hey thank you too, I remember your encouragement from my last post!
That last photo is just gold.
Was just about to say the same thing.
“Get a look at his arrrse!”
Pretty sure they are Grey Butcherbirds, not Pied ones (which are more monochromatic). We have a pair of Greys that occasionally follow the Magpies into our yard. Exceptionally cute (and very curious) things. Cracking photo's regardless!
Good catch! I meant to write grey, because I haven't seen a pied yet (inner desire).
Is that last photo the Vermont tip by chance? Your collection is remarkably similar to what's in my 5 kms :P
Yep haha, that's so cool, do you have any good park recommendations?
Between putting up a feeder and birdbath, and having a fairly sheltered front yard (back unit on a large block so the yard is encircled by trees and away from the roads) we're lucky enough to have them come to us. Every morning I chuck some sunflower seed in the feeder and a little honeyeater feed on some finely sliced apple and the cat gets to sit in the window and watch the all day show... At least until the lorikeets arrive and bully everyone else away. We're close to Glenburnie Rd, which is a private road (so no sidewalks unfortunately) with some huge wooded properties and phenomenal bird diversity. The street has a real Deliverance vibe to it; but to the best of my knowledge no birdwatchers have gone missing :P You'll see tons of Magpies, Kookaburras, currawongs, eastern and crimson rosellas, rainbow lorikeets, galahs, both types of mynahs, spotted doves, whatever those pigeons with the little mohawk are called, wattle birds, ducks and even a King Parrot or two if your lucky (we've had them at the feeder only a couple of times, beautiful birds!) Also if you head towards the city, there's a footy oval and park on Canterbury Rd, just past Middleborough Rd (Blackburn / Box Hill I think) that's often Bin Chicken central.
You're very lucky! I put a birdbath and feeder up, only attracted rats :( The Ibis' also tend to gather in Jells park and around Glen Waverley!
AH! That’s what they are! I saw one on Merri Creek the other day, but couldn’t get a decent photo to ID it
Thanks for putting the name and info there mate, always see these little cute birdie flying around but have no clue what they are
You're most welcome, I'm just beginning to learn about them too.
Why you gotta do my white ibis bros like that? Melbourne is the only place I've seen them more in wetlands than in bins.
I'll make sure to add a pretty one next post~ I've actually only seen them once in a garbage dump, ie. when this photo was taken, but I personally prefer the bin chicken look!
Take a look near Latrobe uni, they have a small wetlands area which attracts them.
When lockdown is over you should come out to the Edithvale-Seaford wetlands. I see a lot of ibis at Edithvale Common, but there's walking tracks all along the wetlands that can give you some great sightings.
Yeah, I was surprised to learn they are always in bins in the northern states
Fun fact: Magpies, butcherbirds and currawongs are all in the same taxonomic family! I think those butcherbirds are grey instead of pied, though. The pied ones tend to occur much further north - I’ve seen them in Queensland but not in Victoria.
Haha, thanks for pointing it out, my mistake! Apparently they can appear in southern Vic. You're lucky, I haven't seen them yet.
I love Currawongs, so happy to see them here
I want to pet them all, they're so cute 🥰🥰
Awesome post! Great pics and I really appreciate the info. You might be interested in [birdlife Australia](https://direct.birdlife.org.au/). I participated in their backyard bird count event last year, which involved sitting in my yard for timed sessions and entering the birds seen in to the app. I enjoyed the mindfulness and learned to identify and differentiate some birds. Plenty more to learn though! It was in October so might be coming up again soon. Damn, can’t believe that was nearly a year ago.
Aw I'd love to, that sounds super fun and I did see some nice artwork on our trams advertising it a while back, but our yard is non-existent.
What're the fluffy grey birds in pic 2?
Noisy Miners
Cheers 👍
What should I do to support local birds and give the finger to Mynas?
I'm not too sure, but just being kind to our environment is nice enough! Other things can include restricting your cat or walking it on a leash, and explaining it to friends that have outdoor cats, "researchers found domestic cats kill 230m native Australian animals each year" you can search for similar articles online. Put some water out for birds in summer. And give the bird to the mynas when you see them.
I bought some "honeyeater feed" (it's like a powdery stuff you mix with fruit) after reading in here that you shouldn't give lorikeets seed... The lorikeets won't touch the stuff (so much for that idea), but the wattle birds LOVE it. The wattle birds also HATE indian mynas and in our case will aggressively chase them out of the yard. Unfortunately they have a penchant for picking fights with some of the birds we would prefer to keep in the yard as well (they tend to bully Rosellas, lorikeets will stand their ground though). In the mynas defence they are just trying to get by and apparently studies have shown they are not negatively impacting the local variety. Blackbirds are also an invasive species but once you've heard one of them singing you'd never want your yard to be without them.
Hamilton Island was my first time seeing Currawongs and I just found them to be such a joy!
Thanks for posting these! Seeing Superb fairy-wrens on my daily walks is pretty much the highlight of my days lately, hopefully posts like these will get more people into birding.
Thanks for this! I am relatively new to Melbourne and didn’t realise I was looking at a Raven on my walk home. It was so beautiful I had to stop and stare at it, so we had a stare off. I backed down. Interesting to see Mynahs are pests here too! Back home a pair built a nest near our balcony and would swoop at us even if we were inside.
Pretty neat that it knew you were there, here the noisy miners are the ones that keep swooping. Corvids are so smart and curious, I like staring at magpies and watching their heads tilt.
Great post. I also photograph birds, well any wildlife I can find. Its a pity about the common myna, nice looking birds. Introduced and known to go around destroying eggs of our native birds. I'll definately be keeping a look out for more posts from you.
Yeah unfortunately. And thanks for the encouragement!
Quick question. Do you post on instagram at all as I would definately follow you if so? I've never thought of posting my photos on reddit oddly enough.
I don't use Instagram very often, only use it to stare in awe at Jan Wegener's photos. But I'd love to check your photos out and give it a follow! Or please post on Reddit and hopefully more people will fall in love with our aussie birds~
Funny enough I'm not sure how to link my instagram. But my username is arakasor and my profile picture is a magpie.
I'll check out Jan Wegener as well
Love your nature photos! Do we have scorpions and centipedes over here...?? And Jan's my favourite bird photographer out there, it's like oil painting. He's based in Melbourne too! He sets his shots up though, he makes perches (and I think uses food and water)? So I'm not too sure how to feel about the methods.
I'm pretty sure scorpions and centrepedes are found over most of australia, there's many species of both so surely there's some in melbourne. I'm in bendigo so only a couple hours north and scorpions are pretty common here, photographed 3 more today. Unlike birds, reptiles and spiders I don't know much about scorpions. Would love to be able to give the exact species when posting photos. A lot of people use food to attract birds while using a hide. I like to take them naturally, although some I've taken at a friends house who often have a bird brick in their garden.
Jans photos are amazing. Am now following him.
Did not know that!! I'll look out for them if I ever head out of Mel. That's how I like birding as well, just whatever nature shows me. But I'm glad there are photographers like Jan who plan their shots and can share their beautiful photos, so memorising.....
After I moved away from Melbourne I began to forget some of the little things I saw every day. I'm glad I have this subreddit to remind me :) love these photos!
The only redeeming aspect of lockdown are all the birds. Thanks to lockdown, i've essentially become the bird whisperer and i love it. Hand feeding Magpies, Currawongs, Kookaburras, Nosy Miners and more. Its great. I know some people see the noisy miners as pests but i fucking love em, their so cute.
Love them. Except the pest birds. 🤮
🥲 yeah poor things. If only humans didn't bring them into Aus. (Looking at outdoor cats as well..)
As much as I hate the bin chicken they do look pretty majestic when they aren't covered in dirt and in a greener setting like at the local pond/swamp.
We have them on the island. They are magic in their natural environment. They look great when they are flying in a group.
They look like vultures! In a cool way
Bin chickens are fine. They’re native.
Their other nickname is "farmer's friends" because they use the long beaks to clean aphids and other nasties off crops without damaging the fruit. My old man had a few spending time in his fruit trees in Gippsland and loved them. Unfortunately for them 'bin chickens' is a little more catchy.
Numbers 3, & 6 are arseholes. But thanks for the pics. They're really well taken, in my unexpert opinion.
Beautiful work. The link is broken BTW, needs ....... not ,,,,,,,,,,,,
Aw man, I love birds. This rules. Thanks. Had any luck on the rosella/lori/parrot front yet? I got lucky and saw two king parrots in my yard in the east about a month back!
Thanks, and king parrots are so cute, they look like watermelons. And yes, I've got a few nice photos of our parrot looking birds, will post another collection !
Thanks for this, it gave me a smile. I had an Australian bird book when I was a kid, it was really old and the drawings weren't particularly accurate, but I used to take it out and see what I could spot. Keep up the good work :)
Currawongs have the best call.
Blue fairy wrens are the cutest little birbs
Can anyone help me identify a bird? It lands daily on my birds of paradise but I can't get a photo of it. It has a brownish upper body with some black on the head. On the lower half is a royal blue and yellow coloring. I tried to google it but wasn't able to find anything?