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Garden birds in Sydney.



The active little Blue Wren is a most welcome visitor. On

account of its beautiful blue and black livery, and its clear ringing

note, it has been called the Superb Wren Warbler, which very aptly

designates this gem among birds. The Wren looks after the low

bushes and shrubs. Working with wonderful quickness, it searches

every nook and corner for its daily meal, and often jumps into the

air after a moth that tries to escape. Be careful not to approach

Blue Wren’s nest, for if it thinks that it is detected it will abandon

it, and we cannot afford to lose one of these useful birds.


The Jacky Winter lives in the open, and with his plain grey

coat and well-known note is familiar everywhere. Sitting on fence

or low bough, he is ever on the lookout for crawling insects, ants

being, perhaps, the most favourite morsel. He is a quiet little chap,

and takes life easily, and if left alone gets very tame.


The Yellow Robin loves the shelter of the shrubs or flower

beds. It seldom ventures far from the ground, and is often seen

at the edge of the scrub, sitting tense and alert, or diving to the

earth after a caterpillar. It is one of the most trustful birds, and if

understood will come right to one’s feet for food, and even sit upon

its pretty cup-shaped nest within a few feet of a camera.


The Spine-bill loves the flowers. A near relative of the

Humming Bird, he lives on nectar, and wherever honey-bearing

blossoms are in bloom there you will find him, probing with his

long bill to the bottom of the cup. Do you know his shrill double

call, “ Pipiti, pipiti,” so often uttered, to let his mate know where

he is ?


The Brush Cuckoo wanders about like a lost soul, and never

seems to have any friends. Its plaintive note is often heard, but

unless the bird is seen it is not easy to tell where the sound comes

from. Small birds treat him as an enemy, and yet when the Cuckoo

egg hatches out in their nest they do not realise the deception, but

work overtime to rear the voracious baby. Although the Cuckoo

deprives us of some useful birds by this lazy habit of not rearing its

own young, it makes up in another way by eating up the large hairy

grubs that other birds will not touch.


The Magpie Lark belongs to an orphan family, with no very

near relatives. It is a handsome bird in its immaculate black and



