inspiration2 - the amazing birds

It's not that there aren't amazing birds to see everywhere, it's just that on Tamborine Mountain, most people are able to come into contact with them in special ways that the lifestyle we choose for ourselves makes quite possible. Here are just a few photo's of just a few of our amazing birds with some little stories.

"Beak" is a magpie who became a regular visitor over a year. Here he's getting ready to compete with "whiskers", a butcherbird, for a snack.	"Beak" had such a unique character that he inspired this haiku.		"Beak" brought his partner "Pecker" to enjoy some snacks. While Beak took food from us very gently, "Pecker" ate aggressively and often pecked our hands while grabbing her food.	Eventually their kid "Nopo" (it means tall & gangly in Japanese) came around. After 3-4 months she'll lose her spotty brown and turn black and white like mom and dad!
Here's a carawong at sunset. These intense black birds with piercing orange eyes look pretty frightening, but are actually quite gentle around us and take food from our hands carefully. A bit scary glare, don't you think! But she's totally focused on getting the piece of meat in front of her. While her babies are growing up, she feeds them well! How beautiful is their form, both standing and flying!		This male king parrot (left) is a vibrant red colour. He often came to eat seeds. Sometimes he'd come with his partner. (below) The female is a pale but georgeous green with yellow.	These white cockatoos usually come in groups of 2-3 - perhaps their families - or in groups of up to 15 - perhaps their territorial group. Here they're eating buds or bark from a tree.	This is a brown butcherbird who visits regularly. The camera caught his amazing wing spread & feather patterns
			Here are two visiting our porch. Their yellow head feathers go straight up when they're surprised. -->	and a white cockatoo in flight!
Everything's about context, isn't it! Take a pigeon out of the city where she's a pest and put her in the country, where her lines & colours can be appreciated. We call these crested pigeons, "punks" because of their hair style.	a young magpie in flight (actually chasing down a snack!)		a drawing - done after watching birds come and go and taking some photos to help observe details of movement that were too quick for a novice artist's eyes.	Our cat, Kumo, watches birds, too, and inspired our story, "Kumo's Dream"
Oops, we almost forgot about one of the most colourful and certainly the cheekiest of all mountain birds - the rainbow loriqueet. Some - but not all - of them "bully" everyone - size no problem.Those that do have a strong sense of territory when feeding, not letting ANYone in outside of their own immediate family. Others beware!	But sometimes they can be very endearing!		see Maki's forest song birds in our shop and also "Kumo's Dream" about a cat who longs to fly with the birds	photos by Hillel

Wou.d you like to hear Whiskers, an Austalian Butcherbird, sing? (2.3meg quicktime streaming file)
It was recorded for Amelia in Hawaii and as a get well song for Seymour Papert many thousands of miles away, but not far, after all.