Owl Boxes

Over the past few weeks I've been lucky to be involved in a nest-box project for my friend Mike Lohr, who is currently conducting a PhD project researching the impacts of habitat fragmentation on one of our most beautiful nocturnal birds, the Gookamit or Southern Boobook Owl (Ninox boobook). Part of Mike's research is looking at the availability of nest hollows, which, in our highly modified landscape of housing estates, parks, cleared agricultural land and farm buildings, are becoming an increasingly scarce resource for many animals.

Mike checks a newly installed owl nest-box in a typical patch of remnant native vegetation in the WA Wheatbelt region, which completely lacks old-growth trees (click to image to enlarge).

 
With diverse native plants and a suite of insects as a potential food source, many patches of bushland at two of Mike's study sites (the Perth metropolitan area and the Wheatbelt region, near Kellerberrin) are potentially suitable to support pairs of breeding boobooks, but the lack of tree-hollows large enough for owls to nest in may be the limiting factor. To test whether the addition of nest-boxes might encourage boobooks to breed at sites where previous surveys have failed to detect them, Mike kindly engaged me to supply and install 30 owl boxes - 15 for each study area. I spent much of January designing boxes, based the measurements of some natural tree-hollow nests from my local area in the Perth Hills, and over the past week it's been great to get out and install them!

The above photo shows a typical installation site for an owl-box at the Wheatbelt site. This York Gum (Eucalyptus loxophleba), which is only a very young tree and one that will not form suitable owl-sized hollows for several hundred years, has now had its life increased substantially with the addition of a nest-box!

Each box is installed using a length of multi-strand, galvanised wire, threaded through a piece of old garden hose to protect the tree's bark. A loop is twisted in one end of the wire, and the other end is pushed through holes drilled in the back of the box, and passed around the trunk above a forked branch. Then the loose end can be threaded through the loop and twisted to secure it in place, and finally tucked away into the hose. This method follows the idea of Alan and Stacey Franks whose book 'Nest Boxes for Australian Wildlife: A Practical Guide' has been a valuable reference to me since I began building boxes as a teenager, and as I have found over years of nest-boxing since, there are many benefits of using it. It is quick and easy, requires only a few basic tools, ensures virtually no damage to the tree is caused, and it allows the box to be moved or taken down easily if necessary. Alternative methods used to mount nest-boxes which involve drilling and bolting into the sapwood are short-term, because as the tree trunk thickens, the box is gradually pushed outwards and will eventually fall off. These practices also cause unnecessary damage to our precious trees, which are already under enough pressure with climate-stress, disease and insect attacks.

Once the box is in position, it is easy to observe some of the design features I used for this particular batch of boxes. The entrance diameter is about 200 mm and the length of hollow branch (sourced from firewood piles) is relatively short - only about 150 mm.

The natural Gookamit nest-hollows I've recorded have all been quite shallow and with a mostly horizontal orientation, so while constructing these boxes, I decided to keep the depth of the nest-chamber less than 150 mm. This will hopefully assist deterring unwanted species like Galahs, which prefer a deeper, vertically-oriented nest chamber. Once installed, the inside floor of each box is filled with a natural substrate (mostly decayed bark or termite excreta, and a few leaves) gathered from the base of the nest tree. As with all nest-boxes, coarse, well-drained material is best as it closely replicates the substrate inside a natural tree-hollow.

Most of the Wheatbelt sites we visited were composed almost entirely of stands of very young trees (like the one mentioned above), but there were some places with several mature eucalypts. Although large enough and having the potential to have lost limbs and hollowed out, however, these trees still either lacked large hollows, or had a few smaller ones that were being aggressively defended by Galahs.

One spectacular stand of Salmon Gums (E. salmonophloia) was particularly memorable as the trees were so tall and captivating! Mike and I chose the above specimen for the owl-box, and it was beautiful to see the the box's hollow front (made from a faded piece of Wandoo E. wandoo) matched the stunning pink of the Salmon Gum's bark perfectly. It was obviously meant to hang here!!

Despite the difference in vegetation composition at Mike's Perth metropolitan area study sites, being patches of Jarrah (E. marginata), Tuart (E. gomphocephala) and Marri (Corymbia calophylla) among the Swan Coastal Plain's beautiful Banksia woodland, the theme of younger trees lacking hollows was consistent. Local Jarrahs, whose particularly hard 'termite resistant' timber was extensively logged during the 20th century, are still in the process of recovery and maturation following the cessation of logging. Research has shown that it takes more than 500 years for a Jarrah to form a hollow with an internal diameter of 300 mm, so many individuals remaining in our bushland are a long way from becoming habitat trees.

This large Jarrah tree was the ideal site for an owl box.

It was therefore a wonderful feeling to know that the artificial hollows Mike's study was providing would be very useful habitat for wildlife in general, not necessarily just the boobooks we were targeting. As I like to emphasise in my nest-box building workshops, the provision of any box in an area lacking tree hollows will create habitat for some wildlife, even if it is not a conspicuous vertebrate like an owl. It is easy to assume that a box has not worked if the target species doesn't use it - however, with this 'inside the box' thinking, we tend to forget it will still likely benefit smaller wildlife like skinks, geckoes, cockroaches, moths and spiders, all of which play a role in keeping our environment healthy.

Mike will be monitoring the owl boxes during the breeding season later in the year to check their occupancy. To keep track of the project, please visit his Boobook Research Facebook page. I can't wait to see who (hoo, hoo!) takes up residence! :-)

What's a Wambenger?

At the end of a guided bird tour I took in the Perth Hills recently, I was chatting to some participants in the group over a hot cuppa when one of them pointed behind me and said, "Look, there's a possum on the roof!" I glanced around quickly and suddenly found myself leaping across the lawn towards the roof in one of the greatest moods of excitement I've ever experienced. The animal in my torch-beam was no possum - it was a WAMBENGER!!

'Wambenger’ is an Aboriginal word for a small Australian marsupial known as a Phascogale (pronounced ‘fas-koh-gale’). This name means ‘pouched weasel’, and was used by early European settlers because of the animal’s similarity to the tenacious carnivore of the northern hemisphere. Phascogale is used both as a common name and a scientific genus name. There are two different species of Wambenger: the Brush-tailed (Phascogale tapoatafa) and the Red-tailed (P. calura), both of which occur in Western Australia. The Brush-tailed variety, however, prefers forest and woodland, and is the only species to occur in the Jarrah forest of the Perth Hills.

A Wambenger's black ‘bottlebrush’ tail has hairs as long as a matchbox (50mm).

While I was totally thrilled to have (for the first time in more than 25 years of being a naturalist in the Mundaring area) seen a live, wild Wambenger, and I thoroughly enjoyed sharing my excitement with all members of that evening's bird walk, I was in no position to take any decent photos. The blurry shot I managed to take with my iPhone 4s (which, incidentally, at ~150 - 200g, weighs about the same as the subject!), were enough to prove this sighting of what is quite a rare species, but that was about it. I immediately began planning a return nocturnal visit in the hope for better images, but my chances were quite slim. Several walks with a head torch over the past few weeks left me with no luck. But last night, after more than 3 hours of waiting in some bushland not far from the original sighting, my patience paid off.

A Brush-tailed Wambenger forages for invertebrates on the bark of a Jarrah tree.

The individual I spotted, which was moving rapidly along the limb of a Jarrah tree about 10 m above me, was surprisingly unafraid of my torch beam, and I watched with delight as it behaved completely naturally, going about its nocturnal foraging business. As I observed the Wambenger's behaviour, I thought about what I knew of their biology, and felt so totally filled with excitement to know that an animal so rare was right THERE!!

Wambengers live in very low densities, with individual females having a home range of about 50 ha (~10% of the area of Perth’s CBD), and males requiring more than twice this. Their cryptic behaviour, low numbers, and the fact that many are eaten by cats, foxes, owls and goannas, means Wambengers are very difficult to glimpse. Emerging from the safety of their tree-hollow home well after dark, they spend most of the night in the canopy, climbing expertly through the branches and catching insects with their sharp teeth. Prey consists mostly of spiders, crickets, centipedes and even bull-ants, but they will also feed on nectar and sometimes small birds. What struck me was how easily the animal could scurry up and down branches, cling to the underside and remain hidden, and I even saw it run up one limb and leap nearly 2 metres to the next tree!

At 250mm, a Wambenger’s tail can be longer than its body. Sharp claws and highly flexible ankle joints allow them to climb down tree limbs as though gravity doesn't exist.

 

My mind went back to a fauna survey I was assisting with several years ago, during which time we had caught Wambengers in traps designed for possums and bandicoots, and this research had created an opportunity to observe some of their features close up. One fascinating insight was seeing underneath a Wambenger's foot, and observing the tiny ridges or keels on the foot pads, a special adaptation which help it grip to the bark while climbing.

The underside of a Wambenger's foot showing the finely keeled foot pads.

I mentioned above that this was the first time I'd seen a wild live Wambenger. You might remember my blog post from 2013 which described a dead (road-killed) male, and at the time I was excited to use the opportunity to write about this animal. I've since recorded another road-killed Wambenger close to Mundaring, an indicator that this species is obviously still surviving in some suburban parts of the Perth Hills. 

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

While many Australian’s have probably never heard of a Wambenger, they are an important part of what makes the our landscape unique. In Western Australia they are classified as ‘Vulnerable’, meaning they can be threatened with extinction if factors affecting their survival (habitat loss, altered fire regimes, and in particular, predation by cats (especially roaming pet ones), are unmanaged. They can also be a natural form of pest control, eating many of the spiders, ants and cockroaches we humans find annoying. The main thing these cute animals need to survive is habitat (that is, native vegetation with large, hollow-bearing trees), so you can help them by supporting the protection of bushland in your local area. In the Perth Hills, EVERY tree is vital, and the increasing number of Jarrah and Marri trees we are seeing felled in the Mundaring Shire of late is of great concern. This has direct impacts on the survival of all local animals, including Wambengers. Nest boxes designed for Wambengers can also help, and be a useful way to determine the species presence and abundance if boxes are monitored regularly. Wouldn't you love to share your space with this magnificent creature? :)

Cockatoos - Who's Chews?

Can you imagine gnawing into a box of Weetbix made of solid wood, using only your mouth, and finding just four small biscuits inside the bottom, then repeating this 150 times to get your daily nutrition? Welcome to a Black Cockatoo's diurnal routine.

When you are out bushwalking, you might have discovered dozens of ‘honkey nuts’ (the fruit of our native Marri trees, Corymbia calophylla) dropped on the floor, sometimes all over a track or firebreak. This ‘mess’ (which is actually an important part of bushland ecology) was likely left by one of the three species of Black Cockatoo unique to Western Australia’s south-west. But if the birds aren’t there, how can you tell which species is responsible?

Foraged Marri fruit dropped by Carnaby's and Forest Red-tailed Black Cockatoos.

When you pick up a ‘honkey’, the first thing you will notice is multiple chew-marks, where the cockatoo’s beak has damaged the fruit’s skin. As shown in the above image, these marks might be fresh, with the flesh still being green, or quite old, where the flesh has faded to a brown or grey colour. Such information is useful in establishing how recently the birds have been there, and how frequently different species visit that particular food source. As well as damaging the rim and neck of the fruit (i.e. the top), all Black Cockatoos leave lower mandible (beak) impressions at the base or bowl of the fruit (near the stalk), because their gape (the size of their open mouth) is large, unlike that of smaller parrots.

Now, have a closer look at the fruit. If you are holding a Black Cockatoo-foraged ‘honkey’, it will fall into one of the following three categories:

‘The Surgeon’ – Baudin's Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus baudinii), one of the white-tailed species, has a long upper mandible especially adapted to probing into Marri fruit and extracting the seeds, leaving little damage (Picture 1B, below). The rim and neck are sometimes slightly frayed, with obvious puncture marks in the centre where the seed chamber has been perforated and the seeds expertly hooked out. Chew marks, however, never extend deeply into the rim. The base of the nut has numerous small ‘V’ shaped marks (from the corners of the lower mandible), or narrow, ‘square U-shaped’ marks (~5mm across), from the whole lower mandible’s impression.

‘The General’ – Carnaby’s Cockatoo (C. latirostris), the second white-tailed species, has a shorter upper mandible which causes much more damage to the rim and neck of the honkey nut (Picture 2A, below). Chew marks often cut into, or shave the skin from, the rim. The distinguishing feature of this species is the narrow, ‘square U-shaped’ lower mandible marks, virtually identical to those of the Baudin’s.

‘The Butcher’ – Forest Red-tailed Black Cockatoo (C. banksii naso), has a short and very robust beak which tears at and often completely removes the top half of the honkey nut, exposing the internal seed chambers. Several shallow dish-shaped marks (~10mm across) from the lower mandible’s impression are visible on the base (Picture 2B, below).

Click to enlarge any of the below images. Note: arrows point to low mandible impressions.

Picture 1: An unmarked honkey nut (A) and one foraged by Baudin's Black Cockatoo (B).

Picture 2: Carnaby's Cockatoo (A) and Forest Red-tailed Black Cockatoo (B) foraging debris.

Lately I've been building nest-boxes for a variety of birds, including cockatoos, and (as though the wildlife wants to be involved!) all three species of Black Cockatoo have visited to forage in a low Marri tree just above my workshop. This has provided some great opportunities for photographing the birds' behaviour and helps shed light on the different techniques used to extract precious seeds. 

I watched one female Forest Red-tail snip off quite a thick branch containing a bundle of honkey nuts, and 'hoist' it slowly up, using her bill to pull and her foot to grasp. She then held the branch with one toe of her right foot, then proceeded to pluck off one nut at a time to be held in her left foot for 'processing' (all cockatoos are 'left handed'!), all the while scanning the scene with her beady brown eyes to watch for predators.

The damage this 'Butcher' species causes to each honkey nut is evident in the above picture. By contrast, the 'Surgeon' leaves very little damage: below is a female Baudin's Cockatoo using her dexterous tongue and thin upper mandible to 'tweezer' out a single seed from a honkey nut. You can view more images of this species on my Flickr photostream here.

While Black Cockatoos are some of the most likely species to be responsible for dropped Marri nuts, they are not the only species! Two of the medium-sized parrots common in the Perth Hills, the Australian Ringneck (Barnardius zonarius) and Red-capped Parrot (Purpureicephalus spurius), also have a taste for Marri seeds. The former species usually likes to extract the seeds while the nut is still fleshy and developing, mean it has no trouble in biting through the seed chamber walls. The other species has a very long upper mandible, a little like Baudin's Cockatoo, and is able to hook the seeds out by probing in through the top. By using this method the Red-capped Parrot leaves a high density of lower mandible marks around the neck of the nut, just below the rim. Finally, the Common Brushtail Possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) likes to eat fresh Marri fruit but targets the resin-rich flesh of the nut's woody external layer, stripping it and discarding the 'core' in a similar way to humans eating an apple.

 

Do cockatoos or other nut-eating wildlife visit your backyard or local reserve, and if so, which species are they? Next time you are on a bushwalk, remember it can be just as exciting to play ‘bush detective’ and work out who's who, without actually seeing the culprit! You can see an image of the foraging debris left by all six species of Marri-eating fauna below. Further reference material about chewed Marri nuts on the WA Museum's 'Cockatoo Care' website.

 

Cocky-Boxing Success

When you last checked in for an update on the Ngolyenok (Carnaby's Cockatoo) nest-box in the Mundaring Shire a nearly 2 months ago, you might remember that it contained 2 eggs, something I found very surprising given my expectation on that day for the box to contain a large chick. The conclusion was that the first breeding attempt had failed, but the 2 eggs meant a second pair was still incubating and there was a strong chance for a favourable nesting event. Last week I scaled the tree, peered inside the nest-box, and was thrilled to discover the above sight - the eggs were gone, but in their place was a healthy, 6-week-old cockatoo chick! Today, a small community group including WA Museum ornithologists, revisited the bush reserve for the chick to be weighed, measured and banded.

With a special chick-wrangling 'net-pole' hanging from my harness, I ascended my rope to the nest box, a climb that by now was becoming quite a familiar routine! It didn't take long to lift the chick gently into the bag, tie it safely shut, and lower it down to my friends Jeff and Jo on the ground. Ron Johnstone and Tony Kirkby from the WA Museum kindly allowed me to band the chick, which involved placing a specially designed, uniquely numbered aluminium ring on the bird's leg for identification. There was then time for a few photos of the precious nestling before I returned to the canopy and placed him back inside the safety of his (artificial) hollow home.

The darkening bill and reddish eye-ring tell us this Carnaby's Cockatoo chick is a male.

When I returned to earth I paused for a brief moment to reflect on the situation: this nest box was installed less than 12 months ago and had cockatoos using it within 3 months. Now a beautiful endangered bird had successfully been reared, and another had fledged from a nearby natural tree-hollow that remained a secret until the nest-boxes inspired us to begin monitoring cockatoo behaviour during Kambarang (spring). Now, there was the start of a potential breeding population, right here in the magic Mundaring! What will this year's breeding season bring?

Visit this link to read the ABC's news story on this exciting day in the Perth Hills.

The Spinebill and the Sparrowhawk

Last year you read about my experience photographing Western Spinebills up close in my Mt Helena backyard. The species has been so frequently sighted during the Christmas break that I've taken the opportunity to continue, this time focusing on their feeding forays at a local native species of plant, the Fuchsia Grevillea (Grevillea bipinnatifida). I planted several of these shrubs at my parents' place a few years ago and have watched them grow and provide food for a range of native birds, and protective cover for foraging Quenda (Southern Brown Bandicoots).

Yesterday  I was filming a spinebill feeding on a grevillea flower when a huge commotion took place. A female Kilingilee (Collared Sparrowhawk) dashed from nowhere and snatched a Dongkarak (Western Wattlebird), who was mid-flight during a swift, nectar-defending dive-bomb at some New Holland Honeyeaters, clean out of the air! The hawk proceeded to land with the wattlebird and kill it beneath a weeping tree, before plucking and eating it. Having my camera handy, I was lucky enough to be able to capture some of this behaviour on film.

A short film clip is coming very soon, but for now, here's a screen capture of the Kilingilee swallowing the Dongkarak's tongue. What a mouthful!

Community News & Cockatoos

Last weekend we had some fantastic 'out of the ashes' good news regarding nesting Ngolyenoks or Carnaby's Cockatoos. Yesterday the Hills Gazette newspaper published these headlines, and it was so uplifting to see a positive fire-related story making the news. Click these images to enlarge and read the article.

I'd like to express my thanks to the ABC's Alex Hyman for producing a wonderful story and podcast about the morning's events.

Ngolyenok Nestling

When the 2014 Parkerville-Stoneville-Mt Helena bushfire blazed into the forest canopy and left a landscape charred and a community in deep shock, no one could have guessed that less than two years later, a wonderful good-news story would rise from the ashes. But when one of the nest boxes installed in the burned area was found to be occupied by a pair of Endangered Ngolyenoks (Carnaby's Cockatoos) in September this year, and a second pair was discovered nesting in a nearby hollow Marri tree in November, I could feel some very positive headlines on their way! Yesterday, the air was indeed filled with positive energy as representatives from the Mundaring Shire, Friends Groups, World Wildlife Fund, Parks and Wildlife and ABC Radio tagged along with Ron Johnstone and Tony Kirkby from the WA Museum to participate in a morning of black cockatoo research. The aim was to check both cockatoo nests, and if possible, remove and fit nestlings with numbered metal leg-bands (rings) as part of the Museum's ongoing research into the movements and survival of these wonderful birds.

As our excited group gathered below the nesting box, I had a strange feeling we were being watched, and peered up to see this stunning sight:

 
While it was wonderful to observe the female Ngolyenok emerge and peer down from her nest, this vision also created a sense of bewilderment. Based on the incubation period of 28 days, and given we knew the approximate date that eggs were laid in this box, the expectation was that a large, 5-6 week-old chick would be inside. At this age cockatoo chicks are fed twice a day (early morning and late evening), but are left by themselves for most of the day and not brooded by an adult, hence our surprise when one emerged from inside the box about 10 am, well after feeding time. When I climbed the nest to see what was happening, I was extremely surprised to find a clutch of 2 eggs!

This discovery, along with a strong difference in behaviour of the incubating female cockatoo above (very tolerant), and that of the one observed 6 weeks ago (very flighty), meant that the first nesting event had obviously failed. Ron, the Curator of Ornithology at the Museum and a person who helped inspire me as a teenager to pursue my bird-researching career, and Tony, one of the states leading experts in black cockatoo ecology, suggested that the first pair's chick was possibly predated, perhaps by a Common Brushtail Possum, or may even have been killed by the 'new' female cockatoo if competition for nest hollows was strong.

Despite the unexpected start to the day, our spirits remained high because the box was still in use, and even though the first nesting attempt had failed, there was a second chance for a Ngolyenok chick to fledge from the same nest box. And the tree-climbing and cockatoo nest-checking was not yet over. Since the installation of nest boxes in May and June this year, which aimed to replace existing tree-hollows lost in the fire, and under the WA Museum's ongoing research on black cockatoos, Emily and I have been closely monitoring the behaviour of Carnaby's Cockatoos at this site. After an investigative tree-climb in mid November, I discovered that our second nest (in a nearby hollow Marri trunk) contained a chick aged about 5-6 weeks old:

Leaving the nest-box female to return and resume her incubation, we headed to the natural nest tree and I began to set up climbing ropes. I was very excited to be in the bush with two mentors who had inspired me so much!

Once I had secured the main line high over a sturdy limb, I began to ascend the rope, leaving the burned lower storey behind as I entered the wonderful canopy of this enormous forest giant. All around me I could see a thriving, living forest, and the charred canopy once so obvious just after the fire was now well hidden beneath a new wave of new, green growth.

Using a long pole with a hoop bag fixed to the end (specialist cockatoo-wrangling equipment from the Museum!), it took some fiddling around to stretch deep down inside the hollow tree-trunk and reach the Ngolyenok nestling. I then secured it inside a calico bag and (very nervously) lowered this precious cargo down to Ron and Tony.

Ron Johnstone and Tony Kirkby have studied black cockatoos in south-west WA for several decades.

I was delighted when Ron asked if I would like to band the chick, and I of course agreed! Tony passed a small metal ring to me, which I fitted to the cockatoo chick's right leg using special banding pliers. These rings do not harm the bird, and have a unique identification number which allow the bird to be recognised when it is re-sighted elsewhere. Once sexually mature, Carnaby's Cockatoos have been known to return to the same area to breed, so banding this chick now may give us some useful information on nest site fidelity, and perhaps emphasise the importance of this Mundaring Shire bush reserve for future cockatoo conservation.

Banding complete, it was time to climb the lofty Marri tree again, hoist the chick back up and return it to the safety of its hollow home. As soon as I watched it roll out of the calico bag and only the floor of the nest chamber, I was overcome with an immense feeling of happiness. What an AMAZING experience! A real piece of magic to emerge from the wondrous environment in the Perth Hills.




The presence of at least two breeding pairs at this site almost certainly means Ngolyenoks had nested here previously. Perhaps one of their hollows was burnt in the 2014 bushfires... and perhaps our nest box was the perfect replacement. This is a heartwarming good-news story to come out of what was initially a local disaster for the community, and one which thrills me with excitement to know that nest boxes can and DO work!

Spinebills: a Pin-sharp Probe

Western Australia is home to a huge variety of amazing wildlife. In our unique south-west region, we are lucky enough to have 14 species of birds that are endemic - that is, they are found nowhere else on the planet. Recently, one of these species, perhaps one of the most beautiful of all Australian birds, has been visiting my garden regularly, and I've had the pleasure of being able to photograph it at close quarters.

The female Booldjit has a stunning rufous collar and red iris.

'Booldjit' (Noongar for what most people know as the Western Spinebill, Acanthorhynchus superciliosus), is truly a gem of a bird. Both sexes have a stunning buff-coloured belly, a rufous collar and a striking red eye. And the male's black mask, white eyebrow (hence the species name superciliosus - 'supercilium' refers to a line above the eye), black cheek and black-and-white bib make him an especially eye-catching decoration in any garden. Their colour difference is the result of a phenomenon called 'sexual selection', where evolutionary pressures have caused males to develop striking feather patterns that attract females, and allow the brightest individuals the right to pass on their genes. By contrast, duller individuals are less attractive and as a consequence do not get the right to contribute to the next generation, so over time the sexes become more and more different. Sexual colour dimorphism, the result of sexual selection, is a common feature of many Australian songbirds, especially those in the wren and honeyeater families, the latter being the group to which spinebills belong.

On the topic of evolution, another feature of this brilliant bird is its aptly named bill, which has the very fine, curved shape of a spine on a plant. This bill is itself the result of millions of years of constant competition between bird and plant - the bird has evolved a longer, finer beak, the same shape as those belonging to kangaroo paws, grevilleas and other local native flora on which it feeds. Here are two successive photos of a male Booldjit probing his delicate beak into the flowers of a Tall Kangaroo Paw (Anigozanthos flavidus):

While drinking his fill of nectar, the spinebill is also performing an important pollination task, which is the benefit the 'roo paw is seeking for offering a sugar-rich reward. Carefully positioned anthers, which bear the plant's pollen, probe from the front of the flower and with every feed, give the spinebill a fine dusting of pollen on its forehead. These images showing the yellow pollen grains, like a tiny dusting of talcum powder, being passed to the spinebill's forehead, with some falling along the length of its bill as it withdraws from the first flower.

Once sugar-tube is empty, the Booldjit then flutters rapidly to the next flower, and to the next, carrying out more probing and pollinating, as it clutches the stems delicately with intricate feet. What is fascinating about observing this activity is the rapidity with which the bird forages. In less than 90 seconds it can have visited all of the 20+ flower heads on the two kangaroo paw clumps outside my kitchen window, and with several individual flower tubes on each arrangement, that's less than 2 seconds per forage!

Probing for nectar: A few pollen grans can be seen floating away to the top left of the bird's head as it forages.

I've noticed the male spinebill is in to feed at least 3-4 times each day, whereas the female only comes about twice - once in the morning, and once in the evening. Perhaps this is because the male expends more energy defending its territory and protecting its female(s)? She is noticeably less active than him, and has often perched in a nearby shrub, resting and looking around. The more abundant Brown Honeyeaters are also more dominant, and I've seen them chase off their smaller rivals on several occasions when the two species arrive to feed simultaneously. This might explain why the spinebills are so rapid - drink your fill before someone else does!

It is a thrill to observe the intricacies of the natural world, which are constantly going on around us, on every level whether big or small.