Our garden is a medium-sized patch of lawn with trees and a path in Melbourne, Victoria. It may not sound like the best birding place, but over the years we have stayed in this house, I have realized that several interesting birds inhabit the place.
The first of these birds is the adaptable, formerly common but now declining (apparently) house sparrow, also known as the sparrow,the English sparrow, the spidgie and the sparra. In our garden, these birds are generally always present during the day, as long as I have the feeder put in its usual place near the shed. Both males and females visit our place, where they like to eat from the feeder, eat the fruits from our fig tree and bathe in the birdbath.
Another bird that is often seen near the shed is the larger spotted dove, also called the mountain dove, lace-necked dove, spotted turtledove and Chinese dove. It is closely related to the laughing dove. It is often seen perching on the roof of our house or on our shed. Its cooing call is commonly heard nearby.
Last of the three usual suspects is the only native species out of the three- the New Holland honeyeater. Although it is traditionally regarded as a bird of heath and scrub, it thrives in our garden. I have observed birds doing some kind of 'display' in the air, but I don't know the function of this-maybe to attract females? The display generally happens from Autumn to Winter and is often done from the top of the fig tree when it has lost all its leaves.
These are the three usual suspects. Other birds that often/sometimes visit include Common mynas and red wattlebirds. 2 vagrant birds are the little raven (only seen twice) and the greenfinch (annual vagrant, seen at least once-twice a year).
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