New Holland Honey Eater

Here we have a fairly fuzzy image of a New Holland Honey Eater feasting on nectar from our Australian native bottle brush, growing in our back garden. The image was taken with Paladian's camera using the 100 mm lens - because there's never enough time to change lenses! We simply swap cameras depending on which lens is attached.

I know a number of people outside Australia were intrigued by my Banksia native flower yesterday, so here is another Aussie native for today. Callistemon is a genus of 34 species of shrubs in the family Myrtaceae, all of which are endemic to Australia. It is sometimes considered a synonym of Melaleuca, and four Callistemon species from New Caledonia were moved to that genus in 1998.

Callistemon species are commonly referred to as "bottlebrushes" because of their cylindrical, brush like flowers resembling a traditional bottle brush. They are found in the more temperate regions of Australia, mostly along the east coast and south-west, and typically favour moist conditions. When planted in gardens such as ours in South Australia, they must have regular watering.

As can be seen from this image, a good excuse to blip another bird, feeding on a native plant - they are greatly favoured by the New Holland Honey Eaters. This is a very aggressive little bird and will chase off other species such as the Eastern Spinebill.

Fuzzier in Large!

Due to our water restrictions, our garden rarely gets a decent watering, surviving on drippers. Perhaps if we did take more care of it, (spend more money on our very expensive water), it would have grown more flowers this past season. Special note to Paladian - please water the bottle brush more often and let's plant more of them = more birds!