The Eyes Have it

Back to ornithology lessons as we have a hiatus in new types of activity this week. The main excitement was the RFS (fire service) community event this morning. The big kids played with the fake fire and smoke machines while waiting for the little kids to show up:

So many of the Australian birds are identified by eye color; this correlates with a variety of interesting colors.  This  deranged-looking thornbill above is a Barrabaroo resident. We do have at least three types of thornbills; the red eye marks this one as a brown thornbill vs a striated thornbill. These little birds dart around quickly and typically travel in small flocks. Their high level of activity makes it a challenge to get an in-focus photo.

I don't think we have buff rumped thornbills here - the light blue eye is just strange.

This pied currawong is posing in the formal garden - until he wasn't.

Currawongs are often the last to sing in the evening and the first to start up in the morning. They have a lovely song and are known as part of the Australian dawn chorus. We don't have too many that hang around and serenade us. We typically get woken by fairy wrens and lyrebirds. 

The satin bowerbirds are also dark but heavier. Rather than a yellow eye, they have a distinctive violet-blue one. They also talk a lot, but sound more like blowing raspberries than serenading. 

These are notorious fruit eaters - we are hoping ours stay down by the creek vs up near the gardens. The males make and decorate bowers to attract mates. They like the color blue and use bits of blue to decorate their bowers. If the female approves, she walks through it. 

The pacific koel has red eyes and calls incessantly and annoyingly during the breeding season. A member of the cuckoo family, it lays it eggs in other birds nests but doesn't kill the host chicks; it just takes resources. We don't have these here - they did migrate through Potato Point, though. 

These other birds aren't likely to be mistaken but still have cool eyes.

The hardhead duck is the only true diving duck found in Australia. (Most North American ducks are diving ducks and feed by diving beneath the surface of the water.) Apparently the name originated from the challenges encountered by early taxidermists. This guy was hanging out in Bermagui.

Oystercatchers are also shore birds and have red-orange eyes as well as beaks. The long beaks are flattened and are razor sharp -  useful for smashing or prying open mollusks. 

We were lucky enough to see a pied oystercatcher chick when up at Swansea

The black shouldered kite also has striking red eyes. We have seen these here but not as commonly as we did on the coast. 

According to the Australian museum, when a male is courting a female, he feeds her in mid-air - she hangs upside down and takes food from his feet while both are flying. Reminds me of the Ginger Rogers/Fred Astair line - she does everything he does but while moving backwards and in high heels. 

Also only on the coast - the black cormorants have bright green eyes. These birds are known to be very sensitive to high pathogenic avian influenza, HPAI has recently hit Australia for the first time so the impact is yet to be fully realized. 

Finally, emu eyes are golden!

Fathers do all the chick rearing. So this little one is talking to Dad. Since Fathers Day in Australia falls on the first Sunday in September, wishing all dads a belated Australian Happy Fathers Day!