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| Rose Robin (M) |
One of the pleasures of Australian Winters is the movement of many of the robins to lower elevations. As they move down from the hills the become more concentrated and somewhat easier to see. The Rose Robin above is at a picnic ground in our local Royal National Park - he stays in a fairly small area inviting an ambling photo session next to the river.
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| Flame Robin (M) |
We had to go south (to Canberra) to find the Flame Robins at Mt Ainslie (a ten minute stroll from an office park building.) Canberra has done a respectable job of maintaining reserves and natural areas interspersed with development across the city. We had seen one Flame here 2 years ago and were excited to see 8 this trip. Their color is truly outstanding - you can see them from 100's of meters away without binoculars!
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| Flame Robin (F) |
The female Flame Robins are highly dimorphic - no bright colors here!
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| Flame Robin (Juv) |
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| Scarlet Robin (F) |
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| Scarlet Robin (M) |
The flock was moving back and forth between an open paddock (full of kangaroos) and the woodland. We were initailly confused by 2-3 birds with faint colors. Our trusty bird app revealed that these birds were juveniles - likely from last year?
Adding to the grandness of the day were many Scarlet Robins. Unlike the flock of Flame Robins we saw, Scarlets are usually found in pairs though we saw them both feeding on the ground with the Flame Robins and being quite aggressive to them.
Nancy has a remarkable knack to see these guys on fence wires and power lines even while we are driving at 100 kmh! In the woods she says she watches for them to 'drop out of trees'. They often find bugs on the ground so we see them plunging off branches and then flitting back up to low branches to snack.
They also have a distinctive 'wing flip' - a small twitch of the wings every few moments that is highly recognizable even at a distance.
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| Red-capped Robin (F) |
A lovely female Red-capped Robin at Mulligan Flat. Note the f-a-i-n-t red spot above her bill. She was an exciting find (4th robin species for our weekend) and they are not at all common this time of year. Nancy spotted her 'plunging off a branch'!
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| Eastern Yellow Robin |
We were pleased to find the Eastern Yellow Robin to fill out our robin card. They practically glow in the denser woods they prefer and are reliable photo subjects.
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| Flame Robin (M) |
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