Bell Miners heard, and spotted at last!

Bell Miners, often called bellbirds, are well known in parts of Eastern Australia. We don’t have them in the area where I live, but I’ve heard them often when visiting nearby places. The odd thing is, though, that I’ve never before managed to actually see a Bell Miner. Until this weekend.

I was visiting the area of Capertee, about three hours’ drive west of Sydney. Bell Miners were chiming away in the trees:

For a while, as usual, I couldn’t spot a bird. There aren’t any clearly visible in the video either. Then, a flash of olive green, and a bird alighted for a brief moment:

The image is fuzzy, because I didn’t have time to focus on the bird. But at least I now know what they look like!

Here’s another Bell Miner in the same tree. This time it’s a juvenile bird, darker in colour than the adult:

Common name: Bell Miner, often called bellbird
Scientific name: Manorina melanophrys
Approximate length: 18-20 cm
Date spotted: 22 April 2023 (autumn)
Location: Long Ridge, Capertee, New South Wales, Australia: 33°09’53.9″S 150°00’06.2″E

Channel-billed Cuckoo laying egg in Currawong nest

This little episode happened in my garden today. It was interesting and exciting to watch!

A cacophany of Noisy Miners and Currawongs drew me out into the garden to see what was up. High in a gum tree were two Channel-billed Cuckoos, being harassed as usual by the other birds. I only managed to get one of the cuckoos into my camera sights. Luckily, it turned out to be the female bird.

Here’s the Channel-billed Cuckoo on the right, with a little Noisy Miner by its side:

In this short video, you can hear the Noisy Miners peeping incessantly. The cuckoo emits a loud, harsh caw and cedes ground:

Next, the local Currawongs join the attack. The musical, bell-like tones are the Currawongs. The cuckoo flinches and utters its harsh croak. Then I noticed that there’s a Currawong nest just below where the cuckoo is sitting!

Like most cuckoos, Channel-billed Cuckoos are parasitic. They don’t build nests of their own. Instead, they look for a likely host (a Currawong does very nicely, thank you) and lay an egg in the chosen host’s nest. The Currawongs take over all parental duties, looking after the egg along with those of their own, then feeding the baby bird.

Channel-billed Cuckoo chicks don’t turf the other chicks out of the nest (many types of cuckoo chicks do) but they do eat a lot, and grow significantly bigger than the Currawong chicks.

Having decided that the neighbourhood is reasonably quiet and safe for a bit, the cuckoo eyes the nest and starts its approach:

Quick as a flash, it hops up into the nest and lays its egg:

Below is a still picture of the Currawong’s nest. I’ll keep an eye on it, in case I can spot the Currawong and cuckoo chicks when they arrive:

Channel-billed Cuckoo | Scythrops novaehollandiae | Approximate length: 58-65 cm
Noisy Miner, also called Australian Miner | Manorina melanocephala | Approximate length: 26 cm
Pied Currawong | Strepera graculina | Approximate length: 45 cm
Date spotted: 10 October 2021 (spring)
Location: Allambie Heights, New South Wales, Australia

Noisy Miner babies

For a couple of weeks, we had the pleasure of hosting a nest of Noisy Miners in our garden. The adults built the nest in a tree fern, right in the hollow where the new fern leaves sprout. This picture shows the tree fern, with the nest and one of the adult birds in attendance:

It’s a good thing that little Noisy Miners grow so fast. A few years ago, some Red Wattle Birds attempted the same thing, and were forced to abandon the nest when the fern leaves pushed it out of place!

This video shows an adult bird feeding the babies:

With Noisy Miners, feeding the little ones is a communal responsibility. You can’t tell which are the parents. We sometimes saw three birds waiting in line with a goody for the growing babies.

In the above video, the adult is regurgitating nectar or other food. Its long, thin tongue flicks out occasionally. In the next video, a bird brings a large green bug and passes it to the babies. I’m not sure if the bug is a mantid or something else. It’s too early in the season for cicadas:

Here’s a still picture of the little ones begging for food:

After a couple of weeks of feeding and fast growing babies, the nest became pretty full. Then one day, the little ones left the nest. I wasn’t there to see this exciting event, alas. I took this video the day before the nest was suddenly empty:

The little ones are now all round the garden, peeping constantly to get the adults’ attention. For the most part, they’re tucked away safely in the foliage, hard to find from my vantage point on the ground. This picture is of one of the little ones, a few days after leaving the nest:

Here’s the empty nest, with a clothes peg for scale:

Common name: Noisy Miner, also called Australian Miner
Scientific name: Manorina melanocephala
Approximate length of adult bird: 26 cm
Date spotted: September 2021 (spring)
Location: Near Sydney, NSW, Australia

Baby Noisy Miners doing well

Here’s an update on the nest of Australian Miners, also known as Noisy Miners, across the road from our house. The babies are getting bigger!

In this video, you see one of the chicks perched on the edge of the nest, making the incessant chirping that’s surely designed to drive a parent mad. One of the adults drops in with a quick morsel of food, and you can see both babies. I’m pretty sure there are only two chicks in the nest:

It’s quite a change since my previous post about the baby birds, just five days ago. This chick looks ready to take its first steps out of the nest:

Common name: Noisy Miner, also called Australian Miner

Scientific name: Manorina melanocephala

Approximate length: 26 cm

Date spotted: 30 March 2020 (late summer)

Location: Near Sydney, NSW, Australia

Kookaburra standoff with Magpie

In this video, a Laughing Kookaburra stands guard against an Australian Magpie. The kookaburra has a stash of some kind of food on the rock behind it. Before I started filming, the magpie tried a few times to approach the food. Now, as seen in the video, the magpie seems more or less resigned to just giving the kookaburra a piece of its mind. At the end of the video, an Australian Miner drops in too. I wish I knew what the Magpie was saying!

This is the kookaburra after it finished its meal and flew to a nearby branch:

Common name: Laughing Kookaburra

Scientific name: Dacelo novaeguineae

Approximate length: 47 cm

Date spotted: 28 March 2020 (late summer)

Location: Near Sydney, Australia

The magpie took refuge on our roof:

Common name: Australian Magpie

Scientific name: Gymnorhina tibicen

Approximate length: 40 cm

Date spotted: 28 March 2020 (late summer)

Location: Near Sydney, Australia

I didn’t get a shot of the Australian Miner. It’s probably one of the birds guarding the nest of baby miners which I’ve blogged about recently.

Noisy Miners nesting off season

Just across the road from my front window, a family of Australian Miners is nesting. They certainly are noisy, living up to their alternative name of Noisy Miners. I was surprised to see the birds nesting at this time of year. It’s late summer, coming up to autumn in this part of the world.

This short video shows a parent feeding the chicks. You can make out the orange beaks of the little ones, particularly when the parent flies away.

Here’s a still picture of the nest. You can see the parent bird, and the underside of a chick’s beak just to the left of the parent, between the parent’s chest and the branch:

It’s busy work, looking after a new family. Both parents are very attentive. Here’s one of them gathering nectar from a Banksia bush in our garden:

Common name: Noisy Miner, also called Australian Miner

Scientific name: Manorina melanocephala

Approximate length: 26 cm

Date spotted: 25 March 2020 (late summer)

Location: Near Sydney, NSW, Australia

Australian Miner auditions for The Birds and Psycho

This little Australian Miner landed on a branch near me and started that incessant eep-eep noise that they’re renowned for. It’s as if the bird is auditioning to do the soundtracks for two Hitchcock movies at once: The Birds and Psycho.

Well? Do I get the job?

How about if I spin my head around. You know, like in The Exorcist?

No? OK then, on to the next audition…

Common name: Noisy Miner, also called Australian Miner

Scientific name: Manorina melanocephala

Approximate length: 26 cm

Date spotted: 3 March 2018 (Summer)

Approximate location: Allambie Heights, NSW, Australia: 33°46’23.3″S 151°15’43.1″E

Australian Miner in dawn chorus

I’ve often wondered which bird makes that series of piercing calls that are so characteristic of the Sydney dawn. Now I know. It’s the common Australian Miner. This bird makes a lot of noise during the day too, though the daytime calls are different to this dawn song.

Common name: Noisy Miner, also called Australian Miner

Scientific name: Manorina melanocephala

Approximate length: 26 cm

Date spotted: 31 August 2017 (Early spring)

Location: Allambie Heights, NSW, Australia: 33°46’23.3″S 151°15’43.1″E

Noisy Miner chicks just out of their nest

All fluffy and chirpy, three little Noisy Miners have taken their first steps out of their nest.

My previous post showed the chicks being fed in the nest. Now, just four days later, they’re on a branch, bunched together, preening and demanding food. The adults are still very much in attendance.

This still shot shows a chick outlined in the early morning sun:

Here are the three chicks, looking fluffy and cute but with the characteristic gimlet glare of the Noisy Miner:

Common name: Noisy Miner, also called Australian Miner

Scientific name: Manorina melanocephala

Approximate length of adult bird: 26 cm

Date spotted: 17 September 2016

Season: Spring

Location: Allambie Heights, New South Wales, Australia

Latitude/longitude: 33°46’13.7″S 151°15’39.8″E

Noisy Miners feeding chicks in nest

Noisy Miners live up to their name. If they lived in California, Hitchcock would surely have used them as inspiration for The Birds. They cheep and squeak at everything in sight, and frequently attack everything in sight too. They’re also known as Australian Miners.

This nest has three chicks, cheeping continuously. The adult birds drop in to feed them every now and then. At one stage in the video, one of the chicks stretches up and flaps its wings. Getting ready for that first flight.

Interestingly, the adult birds feeding the chicks aren’t necessarily the parents. Other birds in a Miner colony often help to feed the babies. Noisy Miners are honeyeaters. They eat nectar, fruit and insects.

Common name: Noisy Miner, also called Australian Miner

Scientific name: Manorina melanocephala

Approximate length of adult bird: 26 cm

Date spotted: 13 September 2016

Season: Spring

Location: Allambie Heights, New South Wales, Australia

Latitude/longitude: 33°46’13.7″S 151°15’39.8″E