Eastern Spinebill (24/24)

PASSERIFORMES: Meliphagidae

Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris  

Some of my fellow Bushpeans from the north have teased me with how they sit comfortably sipping lattes in the shade of cafe verandahs and can photograph Eastern Spinebills in the adjacent grevilleas without moving from their cane chairs.

Well let me tell them this is a REAL Eastern Spinebill, one of a pair that came past me while I was patiently waiting on a muddy track in mixed melaleuca and Eucalypt scrub on a cold winter's day hoping for a Shy Heathwren to put in an appearance.

The spinebills passed my spot in the bushes in the company of a family of Variegated Fairy-wrens and a White-eared Honeyeater. The latter had decorated its face with evidence of having feasted at the same good supply of pollen as the spinebills.

A pair of Shy Heathwrens eventually put in an appearance.

I hiked back to the car and boiled the billy on the pocket rocket.