But not today. What I meant to say of course was that the run of decent photos has hit the wall. This is a rescue shot and no more. My morning walk with the the beast produced precious little. I think I took 6 frames in 2 hours, all of this bird. It took about half a second to take them and the bird did not like the noise and flew away. This was the solitary one worth trying to process. It is of course the male of the species, the female being exceedingly boring to look at.
So today’s BAD is Fork-tailed Sunbird, Aethopyga christinae.
I was hoping to give you Hardacre’s Back-lit Bunting today but it flew before I could get the camera today. It was actually a Black-faced Bunting. They are in the garden but rarely stay for more than a few minutes. This would have been a very artistic shot. The other interesting observation today was a Collared Crow mobbing a White-bellied Sea Eagle. The size difference was huge and the WBSE just ignored the poor crow. I always know when the eagles are coming because they honk like geese. The crows are here all year round, mostly a pair, sometimes up to four. Oh well, perhaps my bunting will give me a better chance tomorrow.
All downhill from here 
Worth the rescue IMO, Andrew. Now I’ve seen a Fork-tailed Sunbird which is new to me. Brilliant color. Camouflage seems a good reason for the females being a bit less splendiferous for survival. Although male, I wonder if subconsciously I wear brown, green and grey in order to survive too. 🙂
I suddenly got that nursery rhyme ‘Cry baby bunting’ in my head and now I can’t stop singing it…..
If you only got in 6 frames – that’s pretty darned good odds – at least one shot very worth the processing. It’s a hard life we males have making the world a ,more beautiful place…choke.
Hope you can celebrate by putting out some bunting tomorrow.
With all the brightly colored flowers around him, it’s almost camouflage even though the bird’s colors are very different. This is a beautiful picture.
wow, what a gorgeous bird, or should I say ‘handsome’! The colours on this sunbird are spectacular.
He was clearing carrying out a complex camouflage plan.
Beautiful bird posed on a gorgeous flower. The photo is a standout.
Ah, we poor females, nothing compared to the peacock males. 🙂 Lovely to catch up with you Andrew, I can never see to many photos of brilliant bedecked birds (males of course, so unfair methinks !!) xPenx
Sometimes the females get to dress up too, Pen but normally they are too busy bringing up the kids and they need camouflage.
magic!
Bedanke mich!
….and what a beauty he is. Round our way it’s the gulls that mob the buzzards and other birds of prey. During the summer I saw a single gull try to chase off 5 buzzards. They just continued soaring until one decided enough was enough and had a go at the gull. Feathers everywhere and one gull flying away calling to the rest of the colony.
He almost looks unreal – like one of those decorations you can buy in the Chinese supermarket in Covent Garden!
I promise this one was not in a supermarket and a long way from Covent Garden, Jenny.
I wasn’t casting aspersions, honest!
The question is, does the bright flowery/foliage whatever it is add to the piccy or detract? Can’t decide. Glorious coloured bird, and the pinky thing it is standing on (was there a reason for not telling us what it was?) actually looks like the colour on FtS’s throat. Unless it is reflection of course.
There was an excellent reason for not telling you what the pinky thing is. Are you a botanist by any chance? “Pinky thing” sounds very scientific 😉