In the news lately there have been a number of articles abou the most popular bird. There have been champions of Magpies, Sulphur Crested Cockatoos, Seagulls and others.
Noone has mentioned the Noisy Miner, the Crow or the Wedge Tailed Eagle which are the three birds that get my votes.
They’re cheeky little buggers. Whilst camping I’ve had one walk into my tent and have a good look around before walking out again. I’ve had one sitting on the edge of my porridge bowl watching me eat breakfast. It would’ve been better if it didn’t shit in the bowl though. We had a couple of them sitting on a camper annex guy rope for about fifteen minutes carefully watching every move we made. We’ve encountered them at just about every campsite we’ve been to. They’re cheeky, they’re fun, they’re curious and quite friendly.
These are my favourite birds.
Second on my list are Crows although Jenny hates them with a vengeance. These are almost the opposite to Noisy Miners. Thayre not curious, friendly, cheeky or fun. They are serious and very intelligent. But what really stands out is that they very rarely squabble amongst themselves. I don’t think I’ve ever seen them fighting. I even saw one try to feed a Willy Wagtail about half a hamburger bun when it was being pestered by the best pesterer of large birds there is.
Third on my list is the Wedge Tailed Eagle. What a mighty bird. Big, dark, sinister and very imposing. Their presence as a mere speck high in the sky is enough to send all of the smaller birds scuttling off to a nice safe place somewhere out of sight of the eyes in the sky. I can sit and watch a pair of the soaring for hours provided they don’t effortlessly soar off into the distance.
