Bath time for birdies
About 18 months ago we installed a bird bath outside our kitchen window. It seemed to take a fair while for the birds to start using it but it now gets a visit once or twice a week in the cooler months, and has featured in some earlier posts. (I must start taking records to investigate an hypothesis that they come more often in the cooler periods.) Today was certainly cooler, albeit not as "cooler" as yesterday, and a very entertaining flock of birds came through to bathe.
The first wave to come in were Superb Fairy-wrens. This one is an adult female.
From the bright blue tail this is a non-breeding male. While we have had some brilliant breeding-plumaged males around in the recent past, none took the plunge today.
When bathing the tail gets waggled back and forth such that my camera can't keep up. However the general "ball of fluff" appearance makes it worth including this image.
Then some Yellow-rumped Thornbills arrived. At times there were 6 of them in the bath and another three of four hanging around in the nearby vegetation. Since they just about define constant motion, getting a decent image proved a challenge. This one shows the facial pattern quite well although the yellow rump (aka butter-bum) is not apparent.
Here are the two species together.
The first wave to come in were Superb Fairy-wrens. This one is an adult female.
From the bright blue tail this is a non-breeding male. While we have had some brilliant breeding-plumaged males around in the recent past, none took the plunge today.
When bathing the tail gets waggled back and forth such that my camera can't keep up. However the general "ball of fluff" appearance makes it worth including this image.
Then some Yellow-rumped Thornbills arrived. At times there were 6 of them in the bath and another three of four hanging around in the nearby vegetation. Since they just about define constant motion, getting a decent image proved a challenge. This one shows the facial pattern quite well although the yellow rump (aka butter-bum) is not apparent.
Here are the two species together.
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