Saturday 9 August 2008

Gold! Gold! Gold!


I was going to write something about yellow pigmentation in bird feathers but I'm caught up with work-related stuff, so that will have to wait for another day. But I'm not going to hold on to the photos that prompted me to think about this topic.

This crested shrike-tit (Falcunculus frontatus) kept searching for food even though I was only about three metres away. It knew I was there but was quite unconcerned. It just kept working away, tearing off bark and picking out seed pods and moving every time I focussed.




Shrike-tits belong to the family Pachycephalidae, aka the whistlers or ... ahem ... thickheads. Seems a bit unfair.

Anyway, it's another bird on my Serendip Sanctuary list. Not rare but nice to see. I spotted this one along the causeway that separates the permanent lake from the swamp, seen here in the top left hand corner.


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