wildlife

[Toole]

Managed to photograph these 3 'fellas' yesterday.

In the bush that surrounds our property a New Zealand fan tail --these insect eating birds tend to fly /flit very close in the hope of capturing a meal that may have been disturbed by human activity.





High above the house,( using the point and shoot's maximum 20x zoom), on the top of a conifer ,(1), a New Zealand wood pigeon and close by on a popular ,(2), what i think is a starling (introduced).







Cheers Dave.

  

[Weiser]

Dave
Like the little fantail. It's definitely got the "cute factor" going for it.

Looks like the wood pigeon has some heft to it. Are they fairly large?

Can't tell if that is a starling or not. Body shape looks like it but the plumage on it's head looks too light in color.  We have a lot of them over here also. In 1890 sixty birds were released in Central Park in New York by Shakespeare enthusiasts. They now range from Coast to Coast.

[Lori S.]

Good grief, starlings were intentionally introduced to New Zealand too!  
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/introduced-land-birds/9

The whiteness of the head is because it's in (partially-worn?) fall plumage, which will become black as the white feather tips wear off.
The fantail looks very droll!

[Toole]

John ,Lori

As fantails seem to be constantly on the move ,after 45 blurred shots    i was lucky to get one reasonable pic. They canl fly very very close ,just out or arms reach and while we haven't had them in the house ,(yet),i often see them in the garage seeking insects.

Yip the native pigeon is of some size ,(grows to some 51 cm (20 inches) in length and 650 g in weight),and their wings make a very distinctive loud "whooshing" sound as they fly by.You can't miss them.... .
Mainly fruit eating they will also feast on leaves , regularly stripping the top half of a blossom tree growing a few meters away from our lounge window.

Cheers Dave     

[Hoy]

Nice pictures Dave!
Although the color is different the fan tail resemble the European Robin in behavior. The Robin often jump down in the hole looking for food when I dig in the soil. One of them even sits on the spade when I dig sometimes!

I have a pair of wood pigeons roosting in a tree just outside the bedroom window. I often hear strange sounds in the night