This week, I have seen a couple of bid species that I don’t see all that frequently at the moment, so I thought I’d share some photos with you. I enjoy seeing birds when I’m getting on with my day, especially when I’m work. While birds aren’t ‘horticultural’, I was at work being a horticulturist, so it counts in a way.

I will start with the galah, rather noisy bird that I always enjoy seeing in gardens in many places, just not usually where I currently work. It was nice to see them yesterday.

These lovely birds are a species of cockatoo, whose binomial name is Eolophus roseicapilla. They are fairly common across Australia, and you can usually hear the noise from a fair distance! They are common in most types of open country, including arid areas inland and farmland closer to the coast. They don’t appear in a wet forest or in sandy deserts. The galah usually appears in mated pairs-with the one in the photo above, I just couldn’t get its mate in the photo too, but it was there. They eat a range of foods, including grass and herb seeds, as well as tubers and the larvae of insects.

Another bird seen this week, is this lovely white-faced heron, or Egretta novaehollandiae.

The white-faced heron can be seen across Australia in both freshwater and saline wetlands and tidal flats, as long as there is shallow water. They can also be found away from water in areas as diverse as rubbish tips and urban parks. Food includes fish, invertebrates and vertebrates.

While in a very built up area close to Sydney’s Olympic Park, I do often get to see some interesting wildlife at work, which always make my day!