Sunday, January 22, 2017

And Another Visitor

I was out in my vegetable garden this morning when something white flashed past my shoulder about 30 centimetres away. It was a pair of little corellas which swept by me to land on the fence a few metres off next to the last sunflower seed head. I had caught sight of them helping themselves to the seeds before - or at least one was helping itself while the other danced around on the fence obviously uncomfortable with the situation.

This time, though, I had my phone with me so I lined up for a photo - and then Pisces came around the corner. The nervous one on the fence took off to the safety of my neighbour's roof where it stayed screeching warnings. Its mate was far too interested in picking and eating seeds to join it so I managed to get this photo.


Little corollas aren't native to Western Australia - they come from the Eastern States with those here descended from aviary escapes - and numbers are increasing mainly due to people feeding them. In some areas they are proving pests as they can form large flocks and this leads to damage caused by fouling from night roosts as well as other things. Despite this I don't mind having this pair call in occasionally and helping themselves. At least it stops the rats getting to the seeds if I'm a bit slow on cutting off a sunflower head.

4 comments:

Jo said...

Pretty looking bird Helen. Glad you managed to get a pic. I don't remember seeing or hearing of them here. We lived in the Eastern States for a while too.

Helen V. said...

You have lived in a lot of places, Jo. You're unlikely to see them in Canada - they are native to New South Wales, parts of Queensland and Victoria. We have several related native species here in Western Australia but the little corellas are blow ins.

Jo said...

When you said Eastern States I was thinking the US. Obviously you use the same phrase for Eastern Australia, silly me.

Helen V. said...

I suspect there are eastern and western states in many places, Jo.