Birds of character

On most days I walk to the Esplanade at lunch time. It's a block from the office and a great place to exercise and enjoy the sea breeze. At this time of the year, it's also visited by various birds. These are not your glamorous, flirty, flitty, pretty birds. These are birds of character.

Three types in particular have taken my fancy and I follow them around the park like an obsessive stalker. First, the masked lapwings. There's no difference between males and females. They all have this distinctive (aka weird) yellow 'mask' with long wattles, and a neat little black skullcap. They seem to squabble between themselves quite a lot.

Second, the straw-necked ibis. Its name refers to those straw-like feathers on its neck; the bald head is a little, um, severe but we all have our challenges. It's a busy bird and the groups work their way industriously across the lawns, probing for every worm or grasshopper with those long curved beaks. These birds croak, by the way. In flight they're exquisite, with white feathers under their wings edged with black. Its relative the white ibis is sadly maligned by all (a bin chicken, indeed). But I love the straw-necked ibis.

Third. My absolute favourite is the orange-footed scrubfowl. Now these are busy birds. And they are ubiquitous. As we cycle around Darwin, we hear them in the undergrowth, scuttling and scattering and raking through the fallen leaves for anything edible. On the Esplanade, they seemed particularly indignant at my stalking them. Look at that beady eye. 'Oh FFS,' the bird in the first photo is saying, 'it's That Woman again.'

Still on the bird theme, but off my list of favourites, are magpie larks. We get magpie larks and Australian magpies in Melbourne, but only magpie larks in Darwin. Magpie larks — called peewees in Darwin because of their pee-wee call — are tinier and daintier than our southern maggies, but no less bloodthirsty. Both are famous for swooping (i.e. divebombing) people in nesting time. Magpie larks/peewees are swoopers supreme, and having been attacked, I can tell you that first hand. In nesting season, the Waterfront has large signs warning unwary tourists about peewees.

It's quite amusing, in a nasty sort of way, to watch unsuspecting visitors being harrassed by these dainty little birds. And that is why there are memes, and stubby holders, like this.