Birds adding colour to the forest, Tarra Valley

Eastern spinebill, Tarra Valley

This spinebill was a late arrival at a flowering tree that was already playing host to several honeyeater species at the weekend. The location is the steep rainforested valley of the Tarra River in Gippsland. New Holland honeyeater and Crescent honeyeater were also present at this tree (I don't know the name I'm afraid).

New Holland honeyeater (above and below) 

I failed to get a decent picture of a Crescent honeyeater despite it being the bird I was most interested in. I rarely see them! 

Crescent honeyeater (male)

Crescent honeyeater (female)

But let us not get distracted by honeyeaters when there are cockatoos and parrots to be found!

Rosellas, Australian king-parrot, Sulphur-crested and Yellow-tailed black cockatoo were frequently seen.

Yellow-tailed black cockatoo (above & below) 

Sulphur-crested cockatoo

Australian King-parrot (immature or female)

Some Australian icons were commonplace. Kookaburras were easy to photograph - Superb lyrebird not so on this occasion. I saw two female lyrebirds but the extremely dim rainforest light meant that the birds became a brown blur in my photographs. I fondly remember this day in 2011 when a lyrebird explored at arm's length enabling photography and video with short lenses.

Non-feathered Aussie fauna was also seen including wombats, koalas and possums but a chance sighting of a platypus was a highlight.

Laughing kookaburra

Platypus (a distant, cropped view, taken from a bridge over the Tarra River) - a rare opportunity for a photograph of this unique animal.

Sharing with Wild Bird Wednesday

Bird on!