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Bird Watching

Having just moved to the Gold Coast Hinterland I have been amazed by the bird life in the area. This page is to just record the birds I see and to help me keep track of them - Enjoy!


One of the first birds that got my attention was the Sulphur Crested Cockatoo - mainly from its raucous harsh call and the large groups it hangs around in! These ones are at a feeder at a café and it was fun to watch them fight and play with each other.


But its more of a challenge to take a photo of them in a more natural environment - they like to be way up in the highest gums with the best views...

 
The late afternoon sun brings out their colours too!
 

This is the Yellow Cheeked Black Cockatoo - he makes a high pitched squeal, rather like you hear hawks and other birds of prey make on the old western movies. I thought for a while that's what the sound was until one landed in the neighbours palm tree and started ripping it to bits squealing the whole time!

 
Not such a great picture of the bird, but a good one to see what the tail is like!
 
 
The Pied Kurrawong is easy to see at places where humans gather to eat! Known in our family as the Pied Picnic Predator, they are bigger and differently marked from the magpie which is also found around human eating places...
 

These little fella's are not shy - the Eastern Yellow Robin - they flit around our front yard and make the fourteen year old cat think that she might just be able to get up from her warm spot in the sun and find the energy to investigate...



The blue winged Queensland Kookaburra is another easy big bird to spot in the mountains of the Gold Coast Hinterland. It's May and starting to get chilly so this fella was all fluffed up, to keep warm I assume. There were about six or seven of them hanging around in this car park and then one caught my attention...




There were just two of the group going in and out of this hollow tree branch and then flying off to a nearby branch and sitting there for a few minutes before coming back and diving into the hollow again. We aren't sure if they are making a nest (but maybe a bit early for that as its late Autumn at the moment) or if there are babies ready to leave the nest or if they were simply feeding off the some grubs or other delicacy in the hollow? What do you think?
 

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