birds at the Australian Museum - Alissa Duke

Today was raining in Sydney so I went to the Australian Museum to sketch. These are three birds that I am familiar with - the magpie is a bird that is seen or heard regularly in Australia and here in the city in Sydney.

Australian Magpie



Satin Bowerbird - found on SE Coast of Australia. They are glossy blue/black and build a stick bower on the ground and decorate it with blue found objectes such as plastic pegs, bottle tops , plastic straws etc. I had only seen these birds once or twice in National Parks when growing up. But now, my mother has one that visits her backyard (in a city of 120 000 people) . She leaves blue objects out for him , which he sometimes takes. I think this is very special. We don't know where the bower is.


Regent bowerbird - found in SE Queensland and NE NSW - I have only seen these in the picnic area of one National Park. You used to be able to buy seeds and feed them by hand. I looked on their website and they have a controlled feeding program where the birds come to be fed at specific times, but from feeding trays and not by people.