Occasionally I visit sanctuaries where I particularly enjoy photographing the wild birds.
Common Bronzewing (Phaps chalcoptera)
1/800, f/7.1, ISO 1600
In sunlight Common Bronzewings can look brightly coloured, especially the iridescent hues on their wings, but I like the subdued colours in the image above. The morning was cloudy which has kept the colours soft. I’m wondering if this is a young bird as its colouring is so subtle, maybe a male as there is a hint of buff yellow on its forehead. The metal railing and the background look deliberately chosen from the same palette.
Common Bronzewings are about 33cm and weigh just over 300g and are found across most of Australia. If this is a young bird it would have recently been raised on a special ‘milk’ secreted from the parents’ crops.
Emu (Dromalus novaehollandiae)
1/800, f/11, ISO 1600
Emu portraits are commonly taken by photographers, I have heaps of my own, and I’m always looking for a new angle. I’ve tried several times to take an image where the background is also part of the Emu. I’ve taken some previously but prefer this one as there is enough blurring of the Emu’s back to allow its head and neck to stand out while not being so blurred as to be unrecognisable.
Superb Fairy-wren (Malarus cyaneus) – male
1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 1600
Superb Fairy-wrens flit around many sanctuaries where they enjoy the undergrowth and adjacent open spaces. This little male was foraging with his family group along one of the pathways. They are so tiny that few people seem to notice them.
Happy birding
Kim
Duck Shooting Season update
Regional Victorians Opposed to Duck Shooting have put together an informative, heartfelt video discussing the ways that duck shooting impacts nature tourism. The video can be seen here: RVODS video
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Delightful photos! Thank you.
Thank you Meredith 🙂
Wonderful photographs once again. The emu was right beside me looking over my shoulder,demanding that I share my lunch!! Just love that photo.
RVODS video conveys another very important message. To paraphrase an old song “When will they ever change?”
Emus can be a bit intimidating, they are so tall and fast. Hopefully the shooting season will be banned soon, really soon.
We occasionally see the Bronzewings here. Common they are not. I so often would like to have a ‘chat’ to those with responsibility/naming rights for birds. Superb is true about the fairy-wrens. Common is an epic fail.
Love the emu shot. And indeed all of these stunning portraits.
Thanks Kim.
We should definitely get rid of the ‘common’ for all critters, what a great idea! I have some uncommonly gorgeous Ringtailed Possums here at the moment, somehow the word ‘common’ does seem to devalue them. That’s brought back a funny memory of when I was at primary school and chose to do a project that I called ‘Common Authors’