The White-browed Babbler is one of only two local bird species that live a sociable life, that is, they live in family groups. The other larger and more common bird is the White-winged Chough. Watching a flock of White-browed Babblers is a most entertaining experience but only readers living on properties on, or close to the edge of town, or outside the town and in or close to a eucalypt forest containing shrubby understorey, or rough land that is less timbered but with dense low cover, will get to enjoy them at home. Pomatostomus superciliosus measures around 20cm, just slightly bigger than our most common honeyeater the New Holland Honeyeater. It has a strong down-curved beak. Colouring is mostly brown with white throat, breast and eyebrows. It has a distinctive long fanned tail, black with white tips. My favourite viewing areas are the parkland surrounding the South German dam, and that land which abuts the Castlemaine side of the Tarrangower Creek before it becomes Sandy Creek.
A sudden whoosh and a gentle wind just above my head and the familiar clackety clack of a Red Wattle Bird rings through the cold early morning air from high up in the big tree at the corner of Frances and Dolphin Streets. But that is not the sound that grabs my attention. A grinding, gravelly, whirring bird song on a low branch and only metres away demands an audience. Oblivious to the sweeping attacks of the aggressive Wattle Bird and to the bleak grey winter sky, a Restless Flycatcher Myiagra inquieta goes about it’s business catching insects both in the air and from the cracks in the tree bark. Black above and pure white below, and with a feathered top-knot or crown that is both regal and expressive, the bird is never still and rarely silent. It hovers and darts and even drops to the ground. How self-contained it seems. One can imagine it saying to itself “I think I’ll just pop into Maldon for breakfast this morning before it gets too busy.” Golden Whistler How wonderful i