Fledglings, juveniles and small bird photos

There seem to be a lot of young birds around at the moment in Central Australia. On my way to and from Santa Teresa today, I stopped for a couple of birds which turned out to be Australasian Pipits. As I was sitting in the car, windows down, I could hear some high pitched squeaks, and noticed a few small birds on the roadside. They didn't seem to mind the car, and came quite close. At first I thought the small birds were grey-headed honeyeaters, then I thought they could be yellow-tinted honeyeaters, although that would be a long way from their range. Turns out, they were grey-fronted honeyeater, not birds I see a lot in Central Australia.

Grey-fronted Honeyeater

Over the past couple of days I have also seen a lot of small birds, or juveile birds on the way to Santa Teresa and around Alice Springs.

Young Crimson Chat with grub

Young Fairy Martin giving me the eye as it flew off

Australian or Clamorous Reed Warbler - should just be called Chatterbox!

Little Grassbird

A pair of Australian Spotted Crakes

I'm fairly sure this is a young Masked Woodswallow, please correct me if I am wrong

A moulting or juvenile Hooded Robin

Inland Thornbill

A recent visit to the Alice Springs Water Stabilisation Ponds

It has been a while since I posted some of the local birds around Alice Springs due to my work taking me out to remote locations. The below are a selection of photos from a recent visit to the Poo Ponds in Alice Springs:

Australasian Pipit

Australian Reed Warbler

Black-fronted Dotterel

Black-winged Stilt

Egrets (monochrome)

White-winged Fairy-wren

Masked Lapwings in flight

Orange Chat (immature)

Port Lincoln Parrot

Red-capped Plover

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper

Swans in the setting sun

Whiskered Tern

Whistling Kite

 

 Willie Wagtail

 Wood Sandpiper

 Zebra Finch

Enjoy your Bird-watching!

Canberra Birds 6 - Australian Reed Warbler and New Holland Honeyeater

I thought I'd put these two noisy characters together. The reed warbler was especially pleasing as I could hear the bird singing away and thought there was no chance of a photo. A black-faced cuckoo-shrike was perched in a tree nearby as I approached and I was sure when it flew off the warbler would be spooked. But, this time, things went my way and as I waited near a clearing in the reeds, it popped out right into the spot I was hoping it would:

The New Holland Honeyeaters can be difficult to photograph, not sure why, they tend to be a bit blurry in my experience, but every now and then after 30 or so shots (don't you love digital cameras!) I score a decent one. These birds are quite vocal, and I've often heard them send out a warning call to others: