Australia: Bowerbirds in the Botanical Garden

After visiting Jerrabomberra Wetlands, the next place I was hoping to visit in Canberra (for nature things at least) was the National Botanic Gardens, another one of the best-known places for wildlife in the ACT. It was only a short walk from the ANU campus where we were staying, but our visits kept getting delayed for various reasons- at least in part because the sun sets annoyingly early in Australia during the wintertime, and it kept getting dark before we had time to visit. 

Finally, we ended up managing our time properly and getting there, though it was with only 40 minutes until the sunset, not nearly enough time for a full tour of the gardens. Nonetheless, it was just enough to see some of the iconic Australian birds I hadn't seen yet, starting with the beautiful female Satin Bowerbird we saw hopping on the ground next to the path. Hard to get more Australian than a bowerbird after all, and these ones were lovely and approachable, though they were also good at remaining behind inconveniently-placed leaves.

Female Satin Bowerbird

Next, Nikki was sharp-eyed enough to spot a Bassian Thrush hiding in the undergrowth, which stayed put just long enough for me to get a record shot. Zoothera is one of my favorite genuses (and also apparently a birding tour company as well), so I was really happy to see this hard-to-see endemic. 

Bassian Thrush

We also had great views of a Crimson Rosella drinking from a water tap, and finally a decent look at a pair of Australian King Parrots.

Crimson Rosella

Australian King Parrot

Now, bowerbirds are one of the most iconic Australian birds. The most iconic bird? That has to be the Laughing Kookaburra, a giant kingfisher that likes to hang out in parks and eat mice, frogs, worms, and table scraps. Most non-Aussies know it as the incongruous bird call sound effect in the background of jungle scenes in movies that don't even take place in Australia. It took me a couple of days to actually see one, so I was happy to see a properly fat and saucy one in the picnic area. 

Laughing Kookaburra

Just to add to the Australia-ness, a herd of Eastern Grey Kangaroos, all with tags and collars from local biologists, was also hanging out in the picnic area. 

Eastern Grey Kangaroo

Just before it got dark, we had a couple more pretty honeyeaters in the form of a New Holland Honeyeater and Red Wattlebird. We also surprised a Swamp Wallaby, my second Australian marsupial, feeding in some bushes, though I wasn't able to get any pictures.

New Holland Honeyeater

Red Wattlebird

Later in the week, we finally managed to get ourselves together enough for a morning visit with time for a proper walk-around. We first stopped by Sullivan's Creek for another look at the local waterfowl, including my lifer Black-shouldered Lapwing (formerly known as Masked Lapwing, which is now a closely-related species in northern Australia and Indonesia). The Lapwings have a reputation for being mean and aggressive during nesting season, but these ones were skittish and hard to get a good picture of.

Black-shouldered Lapwing

Also present were the usual Maned Ducks, Pacific Black Ducks, Dusky Moorhens, Eurasian Coots, and Australasian Swamphens. All common birds in Australia, but nice to see coming from the Philippines where similar birds are declining and hard to see thanks to incessant hunting for food.

Pacific Black Duck

Australasian Swamphen

Inside the Botanic Garden, we first tried to find a staff member who knew where we might find some of the birds we were looking for. The very nice but befuddled old lady at the front desk didn't even know what we were talking about, but thankfully a park ranger there was able to help us out, pointing out areas where things like Australian Owlet-nightjars and Tawny Frogmouths could be found.

We spent a while along the "rainforest trail" trying to find some interesting forest birds like thornbills or another Bassian Thrush, but we didn't see much except a lone Weebill and a White-browed Scrubwren.

White-browed Scrubwren

Our first destination was a specific tree near the top of the hill at the Botanic Garden that had a resident family of Australian Owlet-nightjar. Unfortunately, the day was cloudy and cold, which meant that the bird was hidden deep inside its roost in the hollow tree instead of in view sunning itself. Instead, we had a beautiful Eastern Yellow Robin hopping around on the ground and drinking from a tap. 

Eastern Yellow Robin

Nearby the Owlet-nightjar tree, a Grey Butcherbird flew in and looked down at us for a while. Butcherbirds look rather vicious (as their name suggests), and have rather gruesome feeding habits, attacking small birds like thornbills from behind by spearing them through the back of the head, then impaling their prey on thorns or small branches like shrikes. However, they're also known for their beautiful song. Proof one shouldn't judge by appearance!

Grey Butcherbird

Also in the area was a mixed flock of small birds, including a couple of very cute Striated Thornbills.

Striated Thornbill

Our next stop was down below to search for the pair of Tawny Frogmouths that reside in the Botanic Garden. It took some searching, but we finally found the two of them roosting together in a tree. They're huge frogmouths, but still incredibly difficult to see thanks to their excellent camouflage, and despite trying to find lots of positions we never had a clear view of them. These were actually my first frogmouths, as I'd had terrible luck with frogmouths in the Philippines (thankfully that luck has since changed, but that's for a future post). 

Tawny Frogmouths

The rest of the morning we just spent wandering around the garden just to see what we could see. One favorite was a beautiful Eastern Spinebill showing off for us in a pine tree. 

Eastern Spinebill

Another highlight was the Satin Bowerbird bower that we found. As their name suggest, male bowerbirds attempt to woo females by building elaborate structures made of sticks and leaves that serve no purpose but to show off their fashion sense and architectural skill. Some species in the tropics make ridiculously complex bowers that are better-looking than most human-built dwellings. Satin Bowerbirds have more modest bowers, making just a simple "avenue" of sticks, decorated with anything blue-colored that they can find. In most of Australia, this means human refuse like bottle caps and candy wrappers. Nonetheless, it was an impressive-looking bower.

Satin Bowerbird bower

Nearby, the male Satin Bowerbird, very different in appearance from the females, watched us from a tree, perhaps to see what we thought of his work.

Satin Bowerbird

A New Holland Honeyeater was also showing itself again, this time on a pretty flower.

New Holland Honeyeater

We were just about ready to leave when I got distracted by a big mixed flock of various small birds in the parking lot. That included Brown Thornbill, another very cute LBJ, White-throated Treecreepers, and a few Spotted Pardalotes, beautiful and strange-looking birds with uncertain taxonomies.

Brown Thornbill

White-throated Treecreeper

Spotted Pardalote

Best was a lovely Australian Golden Whistler in Bright plumage, the first I'd seen. 

Australian Golden Whistler

We finished our (well, my) last birding morning in Canberra quite satisfied, with lots of good pictures and some new birds. Canberra gets a bad rap in Australia for being cold, quiet, and boring, but I actually thought it was my favorite city that I visited in Australia- clean, orderly, and surrounded by wilderness, enough to keep nature enthusiasts occupied for a long time.