Birding

Backyard birds of Broome

September 25, 2011 by Clare M 6 Comments

After 7 weeks away from home it was lovely to come back and get reacquainted with our backyard birds. We have had over 110 species either enter or fly over our garden since we have lived here. We keep a record and they get added each week whether they land in the garden or fly over….no height restrictions, so Lesser Frigatebirds are allowed! Our list…our rules! It is interesting to see the changes in our bird visitors throughout the year and also over the years. We provide water and have native trees to provide food for some of the species and our block backs into the natural bush, so there is constant movement throughout the day. The early mornings are very busy and then a further influx in the late afternoon.

My first 24 hours at home clocked up a nice mix of birds

1.Restless Flycatcher

2.Black-chinned Honeyeater

3.Magpie-lark

4.Masked Lapwing

5.Brown Honeyeater

6.Singing Honeyeater

7.Double-barred Finch

8.Peaceful Dove

9.Black Kite

10.Pied Butcherbird

11.Brown Goshawk

12.Bar-shouldered Dove

13.Grey-crowned Babbler

14.Little Corella

15.Torresian Crow

16.Rainbow Bee-eater

17.Yellow White-eyes

18.Crested Pigeon

19.Mistletoebird

20.Little Friarbird

21.Common Greenshank-in flight!

22.Blue-winged Kookaburra

23.Straw-necked Ibis

24.Rainbow Lorikeet

25.Great Bowerbird

Pied Butcherbird looking for a lizard to eat!

Due to the fact that we have underground power throughout most of Broome-to protect the supply during cyclone season-we have erected our own power line above our back fence. This works a treat, as certain species will not land on a fence, but will land on a line. Rainbow Bee-eaters love the line!

Little Corellas taking advantage of our pretend power line!

One of our noisiest visitors is the Blue-winged Kookaburra and it often comes in and sits on the fence for a while. They laugh in a more maniacal way than the well-known Laughing Kookaburra that lives in the southern parts of Australia. The smaller birds chatter away and avoid the water until it has left.

Blue-winged Kookaburra

It’s good to be home and the beaches are covered in shorebirds and their footprints…they are back as well! We all went north and hopefully most are either back or on their way back. This weekend we are “Cleaning up Roebuck Bay” and plan to remove as much rubbish as possible while the tide is not too high and avoid disturbing the thousands of feeding shorebirds.

Written by Clare M
Clare and her husband, Grant, have lived permanently in Broome, Western Australia since 1999 after living in various outback locations around Western Australia and Darwin. She has lived in the Middle East and the United States and traveled extensively in Europe. She monitors Pied Oystercatchers breeding along a 23km stretch of Broome's coastline by bicycle and on foot. She chooses not to participate in social media, but rather wander off into the bush for peace and tranquility. Thankfully she can write posts in advance and get away from technology!