Apostlebirds are such comical characters to find in the middle of nowhere. I noticed them in the trees when driving along one of the main tracks at Hattah-Kulkyne National Park.
1/1250, f/5.6, ISO 1600
Canon R5, Canon RF 600mm f/4 L IS USM
I usually see them foraging on the ground in fairly large family groups so was a little surprised to spot a group of them preening and chattering in the branches. As they were a couple of metres up it was the perfect time to use the sunroof. If I’d opened the car door I think they would have flown, and if they hadn’t flown my photographs would have been taken at quite an angle. Using the sunroof meant I was looking directly across at them.
Apostlebirds were named by early settlers who believed they always foraged in groups of twelve, like the Biblical disciples of Jesus. They are often in groups of about ten to twelve but I’ve also seen them in smaller and larger groups.
They eat seeds, some plants, invertebrates and small vertebrates. They build mud nests that they paste onto horizontal branches and line with grasses. Non-breeding members of the family help build the nest and help to feed the nestlings.
1/1250, f/5.6, ISO 1600
Canon R5, Canon RF 600mm f/4 L IS USM
I was having a wonderful time photographing them when they flew to my side of the track to get a closer look at the strange person that had emerged from the roof of her car. This meant that they were too close to capture an entire bird in the frame. The photograph above is the best I managed and its tail is out of the picture. It was so funny to hear them chattering so loudly as they peered at me.
Yesterday was World Kangaroo Day so I’ll share the photograph and text that I shared on social media. It received many comments, mostly wonderful but a couple that were outrageously sickening.
1/500, f/6.3, ISO 2000
1/1250, f/5.6, ISO 1600Canon R5, Canon RF 600mm f/4 L IS USM
“Yesterday was World Kangaroo Day! There is something wonderful about knowing that people across the planet value these remarkable marsupials. I love lying in the grass watching their very identifiable family interactions – tenderness, playfulness, watchfulness. The more I watch them the more anthropomorphic I become, well, actually I’m pretty much totally anthropomorphic. I also love knowing that in cities across the world caring people protest outside of stores like Adidas with signs, information and chants such as ‘kangaroos are not shoes’. If you see kangaroos in areas you haven’t seen them before it’s almost certainly because they’ve had to wander to find food due to drought, fire or development. Claims that they breed quickly and are in plague proportions are untrue but are spread by the kangaroo ‘harvesting’ industry – it’s not ‘harvesting’, they don’t grow back. I won’t share details of the many ways that the world’s largest land-based wildlife slaughter is unethical, unhygienic and unsustainable (be prepared for some horrific images and information if you go searching) but I will urge you to avoid feeding your pets anything containing kangaroo meat and to be mindful of any other ways you may be able to help these unique and quintessentially Australia marsupials.”
Happy birding, Kim
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