Random shots of our wild birds in the town suburbs.
I found this guy, an African Hoopoe (Upapa africana), busy eating on the roadside at a stop street.
In here you will see some amazing colors and lovely little birds on show, and I could use any of the photos in here as a tag picture. The reason why I chose the hoopoe was that we had a bit of an argument that I wanted to show you. There was also a little argument with another bird further down in the post, and I think that the birds don't like it when we take shots of them while they are eating.
Reminds me about how uncomfortable we as humans are when we feel somebody looking at us when we have a mouthful of food in a restaurant. Some people are so inquisitive that they will even watch the amount of food that you load on your fork. We can get upset when people do that, and I don't know where the birds learnt to do the same when they are eating. In my vivid imagination I have some idea about what the birds were saying to me.
So, come and see.
He flipped his head up to give me a quick look, but we sat in the car with the window down so that I could take shots of him.
Now check his reaction. Hey fella! Do you mind? A man is trying to eat here, so please get a move on and stop shoving your nose in another bird's business :)
Right, let's have a change here.
That is one lovely Hibiscus flower, don't you think? But take a closer look, what was sitting behind that flower?
Yes, you are right. It's a bird, and not any bird, as it is a lovely Cape White-eye (Zosterops virens). Yes, he also looked at me, but again I was sitting in the car so as not to disturb him.
So, he turned his head to see where to enter his beak in order to suck some nectar.
Yep! He found it and had a drink.
And then he turned to take a look at me, and he had the same thing to say that the African Hoopoe also said. Get a move on boy, as a man is trying to eat here. And I left it at that.
Later in the day it started raining, and during a break a little Southern Double-collared Sunbird (Cinnyris chalybeus) popped in to sit on the same bush, but he had no intention to eat, as he thinks he's a movie star.
Finally, he only stayed for two shots and then he was off. Didn't even want to have a look at his poses on my camera screen :)
So, there you have it. These are the things that we often see, and every time that we see it, we are amazed at the beauty of nature's wild residents. There is nothing like boring about it, even if I have seen it a hundred times, as it is always so beautiful. Bird life is a world on its own and believe it or not they also have their own rules and manners. We have really missed the birds during these last days of gale force storms.
But the damaging cold fronts are now gone, the blue skies are back, and a weak winter sun was shining. The birds are hungry, as they did not have much to eat during the storms and they had to stay in hiding every day. The small ones cannot fly when gale force winds are up, and it is amazing how they can survive the conditions in these weird weather patterns. But surviving is second nature to them.
Such is life.
I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the story.
Photos by Zac Smith. All-Rights-Reserved.
Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.
Until next time, cheers!
This post has been shared on Reddit by @mirzaiqi through the HivePosh initiative.
!BBH
Such beautiful shots you have in there today! Not even birds like to be disturbed while eating obviously. Kind of like New Yorkers, "Can't you see I'm eating here?" lol
That first one is really cool, I don't think I've seen you share it before. The hoopoe must be an insect eater as it's on the ground looking around. Very nice markings and I love the crest on it's head. What a nice bird!
The white-eye is a pretty specimen too, funny how it looks at you. Probably making sure you aren't a predator trying to get it! At least it got some nectar to snack on, with such small body mass those birds need to eat frequently to keep their metabolism running.
Of course the sunbird is gorgeous, what a pretty bird. It must be nice to see them around, such bright coloration in the males!
Glad to hear the cold front has moved out and the blue skies are back. Hopefully, it will stay that way for some time. In winter it never stays forever, those fronts out of Antarctica always push up and cause inclement weather. I used to see that a lot when I live in South America!
Enjoy the nice weather and I hope to see some more great bird pictures in the near future!
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By the way, the Alive call worked if I recall. I checked and the time stamp matched up!
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