Insects beware!

As I ventured beside the river yesterday I was joined by a small party of Crested Shrike-tits.

One of our most striking and prominent woodland birds they range across a variety of habitats, equally at home on dry ridges as riparian zones. The sexes are easily separated, the male has a black throat while the female has an olive-grey bib and is somewhat duller overall.

Crested Shrike-tits make a living prising insects from the bark of trees and shrubs. The stout, hooked bill is used to advantage and the birds often advertise their presence as they noisily tear strips of bark away in search of insects, such as larvae hidden inside stems and branches. Two of the images below show the male with a tasty beetle, extracted moments earlier from under the bark of a Lightwood Wattle.

I can testify on their vice-like grip from handling the species when bird-banding decades ago … fearing the loss of a finger when I carelessly allowed one unhappy bird to show who was the boss!

Other birds were scarce, apart from White-plumed Honeyeaters … with an Eastern Yellow Robin calling from a distance.