Dingo breaks up "featherweight fight" between two female Budgerigars

A late afternoon session in a creek bed. The cicadas were being "outvoiced" by the innumerable Budgerigars fluttering around and chirping in the trees above. Every now and then one or two Budgerigars would flutter down and drink at the puddle remaining in the creek bed, and I was constantly entertained by a pair of Magpie Larks with a beautifully crafted mud nest in the branches above. A bull was bellowing in the distance, thunder clouds rolled by without precipitation, a Sacred Kingfisher fed its young in a tree hollow further down the creek, and an Australian Hobby would zoom by every now and then. A few cars passed, curious to know what I was doing sitting in a creek bed, then wished me luck when I said I was trying to capture the Budgerigars drinking.

Further up the creek there was a disturbance as two budgerigars fluttered down, squawking louder than any others. They tumbled into the sand of the creek bed, rolling around, feathers flying, claws out, beaks bunting. It looked like a wrestling match for midgets. The camera was clicking away and one looked like it had got the upper hand when WHAM! A dingo came flying from the creek bank and jumped right on top of both Budgerigars. I had seen the dingo earlier but didn't imagine it would try for a feed of birds. The budgerigars forgot their own tiff and scrambled for their lives, one going left, the other right. The dingo decided to chase the Budgerigar that went right. It looked as though it was going to get dinner but the Budgerigar was still able to zip left and right and slowly but surely gained height, the dingo still chasing, until finally the bird was too high to catch and safely flew into a nearby tree. The dingo, still not done, leaped up the bank beyond my sight. It returned a few minutes later, obviously lacking a meal and looking wistfully towards the water. It drank from a much smaller puddle and continued up the bank. Two very lucky budgies!

The Featherweight Fight

and the Dingo chase