What's nicer than sitting with a cuppa (or a cold one!) watching the birds feed and play in your own back yard?
It's one of the joys of gardening!Birds In Our Nursery
It's one of the joys of working on our nursery too : so many plants mean so much bird life, from bee-eaters and butcher birds to egrets and eagles, soaring overhead on the thermals.
Our nursery is full of tasty plants - and insects, because we raise our tubestock plants with nature in mind - so we're spoilt for native birds as a result.
Come visit for an order pickup, and you might see peewits and bee-eaters, magpies and butcher birds, honeyeaters and lorikeets, swallows and koels, nesting plovers and wagtails, and those black cockatoos.
We're regularly entertained on our nursery by the local black cockatoos which roost in the tall trees around our motherstock plantations, and come down to feed on the nectar-rich grevilleas.
Behind the scenes, in the quieter areas of the nursery, there's willy wagtails building their nest and raising their chicks in our shadecloth roof;
a mystery bird neatly nesting in our water gum hedge;
and plovers that lay their eggs in the middle of our paddock.
Birds In Your Garden
Even the most urban of outdoor spaces can lure in feathered friends, if the plants are chosen well. If you've ever munched lunch in Melbourne you'll have been mobbed by sparrows hoping for a snack; and most local ponds have friendly swans and ducks to feed - with peas please, not bread...
There's a secret corner of Queensland Garden Expo called Living Backyard, where the wildlife experts hang out. You'll find frog fanciers and beetle buffs, flying fox friends and bee boffins.
We saw this fantastic blackboard of all the birds spotted during the three days of the garden show - in the middle of all that human bustle and noise, there's still plenty of wildlife to enjoy!
Take ten minutes and see how many birds you can spot (or hear) from your lounge room sofa, or your bench at the coffee shop. Birds in Backyards is a handy resource for identifying any birds you don't know - there's even recordings of their songs. Let us know what you spot!
If you've got twenty minutes to spare, join in the Birdlife charity's annual bird count and help build a picture of our native bird populations around the country. Will lorikeets win top spot for the tenth year in a row?
If you'd like there to be more birds in your future, or a more diverse range of birds to enjoy, then follow the tips and advice in our Bird Friendly Gardening post.
The birds will soon find you...
