Things to Love in Oz: Birdlife

In addition to Vegemite! and Jackets! I am loving on these birds they got Down Under. The trees in Sydney are full of feathered things that look like they've escaped from pet stores. It's so much fun to see these guys all around.



These are sulphur-crested cockatoos on my sister's front porch. On her porch. You see these everywhere--they're as common as mockingbirds--and it blows my mind.



At the koala park near her house, you can feed these guys, and lots of other birds, and the cockatoos say cute things like, "Hello Darling," and "Wanna treat?" Sure, maybe this is not their pristine natural behavior, but it is totally adorable.



You can feed an emu too, as Matt is doing here, even though an emu would just as soon kill you as look at you.



That's a kookaburra. They are ubiquitous and wonderful. Remember the song, "Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree, merry merry king of the bush is he"? Dad took this picture today at a state park near Amy's house. They really do make a sound like laughing. But here's my fave, the rainbow lorikeet. These are super common too. There were two of these in a bush next to where our car was parked this afternoon.





Sorry peacock, the lorikeet makes you look so BORING. (Kidding, dude, you know you're my bird.)

This concludes today's postcard from Australia. I thought y'all needed an avian update.

UPDATE, commentary from my Dad:

I talked with an Aussie on the street in Paramatta yesterday and he asked what would bring an American to his little river town. When I said that every tree held amazing birds he seemed surprised. He seemed to think about it for a minute and recalled a travel ad for Australia that he had seen while in California. He said that the ad talked about Australia being world-famous for parrots. He said, "I didn't know that." I told him that I had seen a King Parrot just that morning. He didn't know what that was. I guess it proves that we don't appreciate the common place things in our lives.