Entry 9
Sunday 17th April 2022
??? time (I never wrote it down lol)
I’ve seen and heard plenty of birds in the past few days, all of which I’ve already recorded here. I’ve since come to realise that some birds I hadn’t heard in a while and that I thought had disappeared, I hadn’t heard simply because I wasn’t paying attention. I wasn’t listening out for them or going outside to just check out the birds. These birds include the Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo and the King Parrot. I also think there are many more birds that I don’t see or hear because it’s not the right time of year, and I’m also only observing from my own window, and occasionally the garden.
I also saw something pretty interesting. I saw a Superb Fairy Wren that was a male transitioning from non-breeding plumage to breeding plumage. Males who are in non-breeding plumage and females look very similar, though there is a key difference. Both are a dull brown in colour, but where the female has an orange-yellow beak (and unique orange-yellow feathers around their eyes), the male has a black beak instead. The males in full breeding plumage are brown on the body, but on the head and neck they have black and blue feathers. The blue is a very beautiful and brilliant kind of blue. The male keeps his blue tail and black beak no matter what plumage he has.
The Fairy Wren that I saw looked very much like a male in non-breeding plumage, but it had small specks of blue on its head and on the nape of its neck. I think it might be coming into breeding plumage, as I’ve already recently seen another male Fairy Wren in full breeding plumage. I thought it was pretty cool and I even got a video of him. I’ll probably draw some Fairy Wrens just to show what they actually look like.
Text reads: "Not entirely accurate as my drawing skills aren't so great. Legs are actally longer, as is the tail. This is a male in breeding plumage."
A Superb Fair Wren.