More Darwin bird photos

Some more photos from around Darwin in between watching my son play cricket.

Pacific or Eastern Reef Egret Dark Morph

Northern Fantail

Orange-footed Scrub-fowl

Osprey with what I think is a barramundi fish

It was a fair way off, but my first Osprey sighting/photo since 2010

Peaceful Dove

Spangled Drongo

Pheasant Coucal, Australasian Figbird, Yellow Oriole and Northern Fantail

I have seen Pheasant Coucals previous to our visit to Kakadu, but rarely have I seen them behaving like a bird of prey sitting on a "high point" on low grounds. The one in the photos below was perched firstly on a stump, then behaved a little more normal and flew off into the pandanas:

Pheasant Coucal

The Australasian Figbirds were seen at most places we visited in Darwin and Kakadu. These photos were taken at East Point in Darwin.

Australasian Figbird

and the immature Australasian Figbird

The Yellow Orioles were another bird we saw at most places, and its call was strangely familiar, like the call of the Orioles at Wee Jasper in NSW. These photos were taken at the Visitor Centre in Kakadu.

Yellow Oriole

It took a little while to get a decent photo of the Northern Fantail. Finally, I managed one at Fogg Dam on the walk to the Wetlands.

And finally, my son and I saw this amazing spider web on the wetlands walk. The span must have been over 3 metres, and it looked very thick. We could see other webs nearby that would have been impressive except for this one:

Happy Birding!

Kakadu small birds

Spending 2 weeks in Kakadu and the Douglas-Daly region was a time to get used to the sounds of new birds, and the small birds were no exception. By far the friendliest was the Lemon-bellied Flycatcher. A very inquisitive bird that constantly flew close to where we walked. On more than one occasion, one of these little birds came to almost arms length above me on a branch and there was not enough distance to get all the bird in the photo. More similar to a robin rather than the other flycatchers, but a delightful, busy bird to watch.

The fantails were an interesting mix. The grey fantails would display themselves, and fan their tails, whereas the Northern Fantail was much less extravagant with its tail movement, and the Mangrove Fantail was extremely shy in comparison. The Northern Fantail was in many of the treed places the lemon-bellied flycatcher was, and was similar in that its movements were largely catching insects, then perching and watching until the next victim was spotted. The Mangrove Fantail was only spotted in the pandanas-strewn riverside of the Douglas River, in the thickly branched lower regions of the larger trees or close by to this cover.

Perhaps the most surprising small bird I saw (for me) was the Golden-headed Cisticola. I had seen these birds in Victoria and was delighted to see them again. They were in the tall grasses around the campground at Gunlom and were easy to hear, but not the easiest to spot wandering around. However, standing quietly and close to the tall spears beside the campground and in the grass/thickets near the camping ground manager's/day use toilets (always a tricky thing with camera in hand!), they usually came up for a perch to see what was around.