Newstead has a number of ‘community’ fruit trees, one of them a Fig tree at the Loddon River Reserve. Our family is not the only one to profit from the small but delicious fruits produced over the last couple of good seasons. A visit yesterday revealed a party of Silvereyes Zosterops lateralis feasting on the last of the crop.
Silvereye feeding on fig, Loddon River Reserve @ Newstead, 30th April 2012.
Silvereyes are intriguing birds. There are a number of different races, or subspecies, found throughout Australasia and the Pacific. While these races are largely geographically separate there is considerable overlap associated with migrating populations. A well-known migratory pattern is the large-scale movement of birds between Tasmania and the mainland. Migrating Silvereyes leave Tasmania in autumn, wintering as far north as south-east Queensland, returning across Bass Strait in the spring to breed. They appear to be more common locally in the autumn suggesting that resident birds are joined by Tasmanian visitors. The Tasmanian race lateralis is reputed to have richer chestnut flanks and a pale-grey chin and throat, rather than pale-yellow of the mainland race. I’m not going to hazard a guess as to the provenance of the birds pictured here.
This Silvereye and its mates have done a great job demolishing this fig!
Natural Newstead 