Photo/s of the day. It's all about the birds.

[moonvoice]

We went to Caversham wildlife park yesterday.
It was pretty cool.
I got to see an adorable baby ringtail possum;
but the photos of that didn't turn out.
But adorable.


Cattle egret in breeding plumage.






IT'S A FREAKING DINOSAUR.
Actually, it's a young cassowary, safely behind bars. Because cassowaries have killed people.





Pied imperial pigeon.





Same pied imperial pigeon. Fiiiiiiiierce. *Tyra finger wag*





A different pied (Torresian) imperial pigeon!





Musk lorikeet, with a beautiful flare of red on its beak. It was so overcast, but if anything, that just brightened the colours and the shadows, and it was a great day to take photos.





Sleepy magpie goose.





Wild, local kookaburra resting on an exhibit.






I love this emu. We fed him a lot of food that was intended for the kangaroos. He was exceptionally gentle, so I got Glen and Putu to hand feed him as well. This is after all the food is gone, and he's pausing and resting.





Currawong. All fluffed up because it was frankly very cold by Perth standards.





Same currawong.





Crested pigeons. :) I saw a pair of these guys earlier in the year behind our house, which prompted me to illustrate them.





Wild common bronzewing (see icon), resting near an exhibit.





Fluffed up and ruffly because of how windy it was.





Buff banded rail.

Comments

[stormerider]

Oh, that egret is simply gorgeous!

The currawong reminds me of an owl :)

[moonvoice]

It's probably the photo; they really strongly resemble ravens:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currawong

They fill the niche that corvids would normally fill in some parts of Australia, they're an example of convergent evolution. So they're omnivorous, very smart, have similar habits to ravens - except...completely different family. :D

[white_rabbit]

Eeee, common bronzewing looove. :D

I think I would be terrified of Cassowaries if I ever met one.

[moonvoice]

It's funny, you know, you can generally tell how dangerous cassowaries are by how far away zoos and wildlife parks make you stand from them. And it's pretty far away! Lol.

[silverjackal]

Again, I'm hard pressed to single out favorites, but the bronzewing made me smile a great deal (as well as admiring its' plumage) and the emu looks like he spends considerable time on his coiffure. :D

[moonvoice]

Common bronzewings are so lovely; very easy to pass them by because they kind of look like generic feral pigeons from a distance. But up close they're stunning.

[redsixwing]

Cassowary! <3

Yes, they've killed people in awful ways, but they're so ... just.. cassowary.

All the birds are lovely, but the buff banded rail strikes me as particularly beautiful. I'm a sucker for patterns like that.

Poofy bronzewing awwwwww. And that lorikeet!

Yay birds. :D

[moonvoice]

Yes, they've killed people in awful ways, but they're so ... just.. cassowary.

That's pretty much how I feel! I mean...cassowary! I love them so much. It's a shame I couldn't get close enough to get the bars out of the picture, like I could in many of the others.

[ariestess]

The egret, cassowary, kookaburra, and emu are the most fascinating birds!

[moonvoice]

They are so striking. I'm a big fan of the cassowaries and emus (and any of the ratites really). Kookaburras are incredible; if intimidating bitches to other birds. They terrorise the birds in wildlife parks and are often chased away.

[ariestess]

*nods* I have a strange connection to emus that has them alternately as a favorite and least favorite bird. Kookaburras are so neat! I love seeing them at one of our local zoos. I could stare at them for HOURS!

[herlander_refugee]

Goodness, but those are lovely! Thank you for sharing because I am seriously in need of a 'beauty of nature' fix!

[moonvoice]

My pleasure! <3

[spider_fox]

Lorikeet! <3

And I love the feathers on the egret, so soft looking.

[moonvoice]

They're very soft, it was so lovely seeing the breeding plumage, and being able to get so close (we were in a walk-through exhibit).

[red_trillium]

Cool, such a nice variety of birds to look at. Thank you for sharing them with us.