‘Why I love that my garden has become a paradise for native birds’

The magpies nest every spring in one of my gum trees. They do not attack me, but if a stranger comes along all hell breaks loose. The good old magpies are better than a savage dog in terms of guarding my home.

The kookaburras nest down in the forest, across the road from home. They come up each evening for a laugh and feed.

The butcher birds live in the tall gum trees surrounding my house. They wake me each morning with their beautiful songs.

Rosellas come in for a dip under the sprinkler. There are around seven or eight of them. Each year one pair nest in a hollow brick on my shed wall.

I do not feed the rosellas, but have many fruit trees where they help themselves. There are two types of rosella that visit, the Eastern Rosella and the Green Rosella.

Grass parrots, Mallee Ringnecks and budgerigars also fly in.

The magpies love to have a bath and happily bathe under the sprinkler alongside the rosella.

The butcher birds whilst quite aggressive towards the little wrens and finches back off very quickly at the sight of my ‘Nigel No Friends’ bin chicken, the ibis. All feathers quickly fly when he comes into the yard looking for a feed.

I do not feed Nigel, but he eats up the little bugs who fly up out of the wet lawn. I can live with one Nigel, after all, he eats bugs. Any more would be too much to cope with — ibis are messy birds.

Recently I thought the magpies were well mannered, they came in, several at a time, and waited their turn for a feed. A baby magpie appeared and was quickly attacked by the more mature birds around me. I yelled, “That’s your child you nasty mother” and it fluffed right up like it was going to sing. Instead, it just pooped on my pavers and flew away.

The kookaburras are super friendly. Some of them take the food from my hand. Others are a little more wary.

There are many feathered friends entertaining me each day.

Little blue wrens sing loudly in the bushes outside my kitchen window. Blue-faced honeyeaters suck the nectar from the bottle brush and other native flowers around my garden, and a pair of Pardalotes make their nest in my raised garden bed.

Pigeons, Willy Wagtails and more also nest around my garden too.

I get such joy in the company of all these birds. The world would be very quiet without them.

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