Australian and New Zealand Gardening: My garden's feathered community., 1 by weed_woman

weed_woman wrote:
We have good old Maggies to. They feast on the cat biscuits but stay away from the dogs, who love to chase them. They nest in a tree out front and i love watching the morning walkers all ducking and shaking sticks as the maggies swoop them. LOL
Every morning we awaken to the laughing kookaburras (about 5am) They must have a nest nearby. I think they are my favourite.
Blue faced Honey eaters visit the front veranda and eat the bugs out of the hanging baskets. They also get into the red hot pokers when they are in flower.
Niosey Miners are abundant and live up to their name. They nest all around the garden and harrass the Kookaburras and magpies in gangs.
Galahs are regular visitors to the lawn areas as are rosellas, grass parrots and lorikeets.
They also make a mess of the yard when the gums are in flower. At the moment the callistemon are flowering and there is a multitude of colourful parrots visiting.
The occassional white Cockatoo flies over, but we have the dogs trained to chase them off, as they are very destructive and may I suggest not encouraging them by leaving food out for them.
Wild ducks/wood ducks. I didn't know ducks could land in trees untill I saw these guys. They are so funny and swim in the dams around the estate and every spring they are waddling around showing off their cute little brood of ducklings.
Plovers are abundant, but once again the dogs keep them away. I'm glad because they are sooooooo noisey at night. When you get close to the nest, one parent bird will fly away from it a bit, and lie there flapping one wing as though it is injured, (hoping to lure you away from the nest) If you continue toward it, they will swoop and call.
Top knot pidgeons are around also and are regular visitors to the chook yard. The food has now been placed in the coop which has discouraged them considerably.
Around the dams and waterways, there are herons and Egrets and a couple of years ago we had a pair of visiting brolgas, which looked and sounded like pterodactyls!
I only put old seeded bread out very occasionally, and my main contribution to our bird visitors is to provide clean water. I don't want them too well fed as i would like them to do my insect control for me.