This is my response to the Ragtag Daily Prompt — Zest.

Orange is a very bossy colour, don’t you think, dear Reader?  It is bold and beautiful.  It says “look at me” and it says it loudly, sometimes quite literally.

Take the Noisy Miner for example — with its “don’t mess with me” attitude and evil yellow/orange eye, this little bird, native to Australia, is a veritable bossy boots.  It will see off small and large birds that dare enter its territory.  That territory is declining rapidly with the widespread clearing of woodland, thereby concentrating the problem.  Nevertheless, I am quite the fan of this pugnacious little bird.  I wonder if we planted more of the spikier plants and grasses in our parks and gardens, whether that would provide sufficient protection for some of the smaller birds and lead to a greater diversity of bird life?

allaboutme

Noisy Miner

In a sea of blue and green, or among dull browns, there is nothing like a little orange to add a pop of colour to the landscape.  Like the noisy miner, Rainbow Lorikeets are incredibly raucous and bossy.  I haven’t yet achieved a rapprochement with these birds, whom I consider interlopers in my local area.  From a small population of birds that escaped an aviary, they are well and truly making their presence felt.  I try not to make the rainbow lorikeets too welcome at my place by favouring spiky plants and dense shrubbery.  I photographed this pair on my holiday.  In their “native” habitat, their beauty shines.

rainbowlorikeets

I think you will agree that the Little Friarbird below needs a pop of colour.  This one must be a juvenile because it has prominent yellow colouring on its throat.

littlefriarbird

As many of my regular readers will know, I’ve been on holiday the last couple of weeks.  I left the cold, grey winter days of Canberra (Australia) behind and headed north to the sun.  I will leave you with a couple of photos of plants that do not grow in our frosty part of the country.  They are not native to Australia, but are instead native to Africa, and so it is not surprising that they grow so well here too.

Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia)
Bougainvillea

I hope you have enjoyed my holiday snaps.  More to come.  I will try not to bore you too much.

Comments welcome.  Can’t find the Comments Section?  Keep scrolling.

Kind Regards.
Tracy

 

 

14 thoughts on “Orange Zest”

  1. Great photos, Tracy. I’m not a fan of noisy miners as I’m trying to encourage other birds into my garden and they don’t need someone moving them along. I love that Grevillea flower with the friar bird.

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    1. Thanks Jane. I love the Noisy Miner, but not in my garden. 🙂 There were so many honeyeaters at my mum’s place. The birds love it there.

      Jane, can you try my contact page again. Your page doesn’t have one that I could see. We didn’t make it to Mudgee, but I am determined that I shall have a way to contact you when we eventually do.

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  3. Love the post and pics. Yes, orange is a bossy and commanding colour. I hadn’t thought of this before! Interestingly, our miner birds are a little different to the ones in the East. I’ll have to find some pics to post. Looking forward to more of your pics!

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  6. Ooh! I think I’m in love with that Nois Miner – what a character of a bird! And that splash of colour is so attractive. 😄
    I’ve somewhere read that Orange is considered to be an agressive colour but just think of sunset for example, there’s nothing aggressive in that, is there? Or Indian yellow which is one of my favourite colours. 😄

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