A striking bird that is common across the island of Tasmania, I saw one the day I landed in Australia and was stunned to find a bird so beautiful. Being color-blind, I generally cannot appreciate birds completely, but blue is the exception!
Like other fairywrens, Superb fairywrens exhibit sexual dimorphism, with the female exhibiting a fawn color. Immature males start with fawn-colored plumage but turn blue after their first breeding season. Some take longer, as seen in the cover photo.
Eastern spine bill is a beautiful honeyeater endemic to south-eastern Australia. The bird’s distinguishing feature is the long, needle-like bill, which adeptly extracts nectar from various flowering plants. This evolutionary feature independently evolves in many nectar-drinking species like I’iwi.
Vibrant colors adorn the male plumage, including a dark crown, a cinnamon-colored throat, and a contrasting white chest.
Australian little penguins, or blue penguins, are one of the smallest penguin species in the world, growing to about a foot. They were once considered a subspecies of the little penguin from New Zealand, but later, mtDNA revealed that the Australian little penguins are a species of their own. Other than their behavioral differences, a critical difference between the two little penguin species is the striking blue plumage of the Australian species.
Little penguins spend most of their day in the ocean. During breeding season, the adults leave their chicks in their nest for the day as they head out into the sea to forage, returning at night to feed their young. One behavioral difference between New Zealand and the Australian penguin is that the Australian blue penguins come ashore in small groups, possibly to protect against predatory marsupials that did not exist in New Zealand.
The blue penguin is native to southern Australia, including Tasmania, where these cranky juveniles were photographed waiting impatiently for their parents to return! They are also found in the Otago region of New Zealand.
Exploring Free Green Cascadia 