Brown-headed Honeyeater (5/21)

PASSERIFORMES: Meliphagidae

Melithreptus brevirostris  

Bird Watching

I had been standing alone in the bush with my camera for a while, waiting very patiently in the foliage hoping a Chestnut-rumped Heathwren might wander by. After all, I'd seen one here before. Then I got the feeling that it was me that was being watched.

I peered around. They hadn't been there before, but there they were, five of them, a family of Brown-headed Honeyeaters, two parents with dark bills and three juveniles sporting orangey-pink at the bill-base, all perched in a row along a small branch. And they were all intently watching me.

Somebody was a bit mixed up. Wasn't it me that was the bird-watcher? Did they think that bird-watchers meant them? Or perhaps they were bird-watcher-watchers? Was I now a bird-watcher-watcher-watcher?

I wasn't sure, but one thing was certain. I had been standing alone in the bush for too long.