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Back yard birds

I had a day out planned with a friend and our cameras. We had a list of places to go and subjects to photograph but alas all of them required fine weather, if not sunshine. Of course today it rained so we ended up inside shooting out the french doors.  At least we were dry, the birds certainly weren't, but that didn't stop them from bouncing around the trees and ferns for us.

While the waxeye numbers have increased it is interesting to note some of the differences in the birds. Last year we had 'broken beak', I haven't seen him this year so his handicap may well have caused his early demise.  This year we have a couple of birds with what can best be described as 'muted' colours, we have one with a bald patch on his head, and today I noticed one with black feathers on its head.

The black feathers just look wrong as they should be green but they do make this bird stand out from the rest. Somewhere there must be a dominant gene for black feathers, or someone jumped the nest a couple of times! I have resisted giving them names because there would be way to many to remember.

Our resident tui came by a few times while we were sitting there. He was singing us a delightful tune before popping in for a feed. We can almost stand right next to him now (providing we don't have a camera in hand) and he enjoys it when we talk to him. As soon as there is a camera in sight then the standard distance must be observed or he is gone. We are very lucky that we have such beautiful birds visiting our back yard.

 

Help! My bow tie is crooked

This afternoon we had a new visitor to the garden. He had a very angry looking face, a yellow mustache and a crooked bow tie. I think he must have woken up on the wrong side of the branch this morning and decided it was time to investigate where all the noise was coming from. We had a lot of bird noise this afternoon. 

 

This tui is definitely a new visitor as his two white throat feathers were off centre. This will make him easy to identify if he decides to come back.  He flew in at speed, checked out the tree before jumping onto the roofs of both the feeders one after the other, then flew off again. He didn't bother to taste the nectar on offer so obviously wasn't hungry and by the looks of the pollen around his beak, he is finding plenty of food elsewhere.

The waxeyes always disappear into the depths of the trees whenever there is a tui about. As soon as you hear the swooping wings of the tui, they just vanish. You know they are there and every now and then you can hear them chirping away to each other.  "Is he gone yet? Is it safe? Can we come out yet?"  Once the all clear is given they flock back to the feeders as if there was never a threat.

Behaviour and displays of affection

I have been doing some reading up on the behaviour of the waxeyes today to see what I should be watching for.  It seems that I have already been witnessing courtship behaviour.  We have several established pairs in our flock and all the books say that paired waxeyes are very affectionate to each other. Lots of mutual preening (which I have already seen) and huddling close to each other.

Today in one of the trees I could see at least three pairs huddling together and preening each other. I couldn't get a great shot because of where they were and the bad lighting but trust me when I say there was a lot of canoodling going on in that tree! Hopefully next spring we will have lots of fluff ball chicks as a result.

Numbers are still increasing so I think word is getting around that there is food here on a regular basis. Lucky for the birds we are going to have someone house sitting for us and feeding them when we go away later in the year.  Having gotten them so used to coming here when their food supply is low, I don't think it is fair to just leave them unattended for any length of time. That would just be too cruel.

Displaying affection and mutual preening.

Fluff balls

Since we have had the feeders out I have seen several clutches of waxeye chicks appear. I was lucky enough with the first couple to be able to photograph the parent birds feeding them, but I have missed that activity with the others. They are easy to pick out though as the chicks are generally more like little balls of fluff compared to their sleek parents.

Waxeyes can have several clutches of chicks in a season and with such a long summer I think that is exactly what they did. The last lot of chicks are bouncing around the branches now and looking extremely cute in their fluffed up state. One of the advantages of their being with us as fledglings is that they have less fear of us, so they are coming in closer and not bothering too much about the camera.

This afternoon I counted upwards of twenty waxeyes at one time around the feeders. They are chasing away the sparrows and putting on wonderful displays of dominance to each other. It's had to know how they work out who is the top dog (or bird) as they are all prancing about doing their little dominance dance. There are a few obvious pairs but I will be interested to watch their mating rituals in spring now that they are so comfortable being around us.

The dominance dance

Who needs the sun?

Yesterday I went in search of sunshine and found very little. Today there was nothing but low grey clouds and rain, but I decided that I should be able to come up with something even in these conditions!  I like to challenge myself and low light conditions are the norm in the bush where most of the birds are, so I thought I should practice photographing the birds in low light.

All of these images were taken today in today's conditions. There has been very little post processing done on them and other than increasing the ISO setting on the camera and setting the white balance to cloudy, I did nothing different to what I normally do in the bright light. The neighbours probably thought I was made sitting in an open doorway on a bar stool in the cold taking photos but that's ok. I am happy to be the mad bird lady!

The rapid wing flapping is a display of dominance.

Dive practice

 

Today I deliberately went to the kingfishers when I knew the tide would be still in. The sun was supposed to be shining and I wanted to concentrate of capturing them diving for crabs in the shallow water. Well two out of three isn't bad but it doesn't make good images. The sun let me down so all I got to do was practice my timing and focusing.

This set of images is grainy and not what I would normally post but I am doing so to show what goes behind a great image. Lots and lots of practice to get to the point of being able to focus fast enough to capture the bird as it leaves the water. The kingfishers are perched in a tree over the water and when they dive they do so with the intention of catching a crab they have spotted, and they do so at great speed.

The trick is to get the camera to focus on the bird as it dives into the water so that you can capture it as it leaves the water, bearing in mind that this is pretty much a split second situation so you have to be on your game. I found myself keeping both eyes open, one on the viewfinder and one watching where the bird was going, this allowed me to point the camera in the right direction for focusing.

In the past I have fluked a few really cool shots of the kingfishers diving but I haven't actually sought it out as the primary subject before. I can see it taking a good long while before I am satisfied with the results from this exercise.