BirdForum

A birding friend of mine once made the statement "Birds are where you find them." in regards to several species he had recently observed well out of the areas designated by maps in the popular field guides. There are, in fact, many reasons that a bird may wander from its designated area of distribution with weather, food supplies and, apparently just wanderlust being a few of the culprits. We should still trust the field guides for general distribution of the various species, but, we...

Tom at TBF

Though moody winds of March blow down the hill
And the air still has the touch of Winter's chill
The year's first flowers their brilliant hues display
And sun shine days cannot be far away.

Small song bird robin with the orange coloured breast
And with moss in beak commence to build her nest
And only one thought in her robin mind
To mate and hatch and bring forth robin kind.

It can't be long now from the prime of Spring
...

Francis Duggan

Amongst Australia's fairest parrots in red and white and green and gold
The eastern rosellas so lovely to behold
And though not classified as plentiful or not seen every where
They are not an endangered species and not known to be rare.

An eastern rosella perched on a sunlit tree
As beautiful a parrot as one might wish to see
I see them fairly regularly though not every day
And if I walk close to them they always fly away.

Were...

Francis Duggan

The rainbow lorikeets make their nest high up in hole in trunk of tree
In old gum or wattle or blackwood maybe
Or any old tall tree with a cavity
To nest in hole runs in their family.

It has been said in unlined nest they lay
Two to three eggs of dullish white to gray
And though their nests far too high to climb to for me
Their eggs I have been privileged to see.

The rainbow lorikeets so beautiful to view
They wear the...

Francis Duggan

The life support and sustenance of many a forest tree
It flows down through the undergrowth that reach up to the knee
From upper Selby through the wood by Puffing Billy track
The wood birds bathe in Selby creek and wash their wings and back.

To old gum tree by Selby Creek I heard the old man say
The fairies come when moon is up to dance and sing and play
He stood and watched them one bright night dance round the old gum tree
And he feels sure...

Francis Duggan