Great Birding Moments # 26 Red Browed Finch
Red Browed Finch
The Red Browed Finch is one of many beautiful species of finch found in Australia. It is always a delight to find a group of finches feeding on the grass, drinking from a pond or bird bath or visiting one’s garden. This species is found along the east coast through to much of Victoria and south eastern South Australia.
Red Browed Finch
Locally, we do not have them here in Murray Bridge but they are widespread in the nearby Adelaide Hills and part of the Adelaide metropolitan area. My most recent sighting of this delightful species was on a visit to the Cleland Wildlife Park. As I was about to enter one of the walk through aviaries I was entranced by a large group, perhaps as many as 30, Red Brows coming to a feeding tray. There was much excitement, because the feeding tray had just been replenished by the keeper.
On entering the aviary there were many more inside the cage. These were also quite used to people visiting their home so is was quite easy to take some good photos.
Related articles:
- Cleland Wildlife Park - photos of a visit to this lovely place in the Adelaide Hills.
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December 10th, 2006 at 1:16 pm
They’re such busy little things. We get them quite frequently in the untidier parks and public land in the west of Melbourne. They don’t seem to be so fond of manicured lawns. (Not that there’s such a thing as a lawn in the whole of SE Australia at the moment.)
December 10th, 2006 at 6:26 pm
We have been trendy for many years and didn’t know it. By that I mean that we haven’t had a lawn for at least ten years. I “mow the grass” rather than “mow the lawn” and only as needed. My wife is doing some serious studies in using native grasses instead of lawn. There seems to be great potential there - they require much less water and far fewer mowings. A win-win situation. She has written about this on her blog here http://www.malleenativeplants.com.au/
December 13th, 2006 at 1:54 am
That is one seriously beautiful finch.
December 13th, 2006 at 8:29 am
Thanks Mike - I’d have to agree with you. But then - we have some really wonderful finches here in Australia it is hard to choose the most beautiful. Personally I like the Diamond Finch, mainly because this species is occasionally seen in our garden. Having said that, I’ll acknowledge that one would have to travel to many parts of the world to find a more beautiful bird than the Gouldian Finch, a species I have yet to see in the wild. I have seen them in a friend’s aviary and the colours are amazing.
January 2nd, 2007 at 7:05 am
Red Browed Finch
We are very fortunate to have at least 30 - 40 Red Browed Finch in our garden every day. We have two bird feeders near our verandah and these beautiful birds feed from them each day. They are not shy at all and we are able to sit within 6 feet of them and watch them feed. We have many nests around our house, one of which is in a tree on our front lawn. We are very fortunate. We also regularly see Diamond Firetails - sometimes a dozen of them - on our lawn and around our garden.
Chris
March 14th, 2008 at 10:30 am
Beautiful Birds! Wish I had some that pretty around my place.
I love everything about gardening, growing plants and learning all I can about organic gardening and all the garden accessories that are out there. Keep up the great work on this blog and I look forward to visiting again. By the way, you might really enjoy what you find at http://gardeninglunatic.com Have a great day
March 15th, 2008 at 9:23 am
Hi there Chris - thank you for visiting and for leaving a comment.
You are very lucky to have such beautiful birds in your garden. It is obvious that you enjoy their company and they enjoy being there.
March 15th, 2008 at 9:28 am
Thanks for visiting my blog about Australian birds and for your kind comments Mark. We know that we are very fortunate to have such beautiful birds here in Australia. It is a constant delight to see them in our gardens.