We have this list, you see.
It gives the names of all the different bird species which have been sighted at Sydney Olympic Park, and there are over 180 of them.
There are little boxes next to each name, so that we can tick off birds as we spot them. Obviously we now have to keep going back to see how many we can find. The photos below were taken over three relatively short visits.
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We’ve walked the foreshore of Newington Armory…
This little Australian Reed-Warbler let us know in no uncertain terms that we were too close to his nest…
These Double-Barred Finches were tiny (11cm long), and darted around so quickly that I struggled to keep my eyes on them (let alone my camera lens)…
Sydney Olympic Park is visited by four species of Cormorant, and we’ve now spotted all of them! This is the Little Pied Cormorant…
Australian Magpies are named after European Magpies, but they belong to a completely different family. They’re closely related to Butcherbirds and Currawaongs (there’s more information on Wikipedia here).
Our Magpies are black and white…
…and fierce…
These funny looking Purple Swamphens (also known as Pukeko in New Zealand) are all over the park…
They’re yet another Alice in Wonderland bird, in my opinion…
Willie Wagtails are so named because they shake their tails from side to side as they hunt…
A long distance shot through a wire fence of a White-faced Heron…
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At the Brick Pit and Wentworth Common, we saw another of these Herons…
A small group of Little Black Cormorants with their mother of pearl feathers, photographed in the Brick Pit from the 18 metre (60′) high walkway above it…
There’s a male Hardhead (White-eyed Duck) at the top of the photo below as well – according to Wiki, it’s the only true diving duck we have in Australia…
Kookaburras are such a common bird in Sydney, yet this is the first one we’ve seen at the Olympic Park. They’re a variety of Kingfisher…
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Strolling around Lake Belvedere, we observed a large Pied Cormorant colony breeding and nesting on the small island in the middle of the lake. Substantially larger than the Little Pied Cormorant in the photos above, these big birds sit and dry their wings after fishing…
Apart from size, they’re also distinguished by a yellow eye-patch and blue eye-rings. According to Wiki, this species is found only in Australia and parts of New Zealand.
They’re remarkably adept in the water…
On the island, there is a large tree filled with nesting Pied Cormorants. This wasn’t the sharpest photo of the day, but it did capture the very moment when the parent bird was landing with a fish for her begging chick…
This Australasian Darter was a joy to watch in the water. I believe this one was either a female or a juvenile, as the adult males are jet black…
We thought these were Pacific Black Ducks, but they’re actually Australian Wood Ducks…
They look a little like small geese…
The females have an eye stripe (which is why we confused them with the Pacific Blacks), whereas the males have an all brown head (as can be seen in the top photo)…
Dusky Moorhens were out in force. They were nesting in the reed beds…
This one tipped into the water like a rubber duck in a bathtub…
Oodles of Eurasian Coots were on the lake – they have distinctive and quite spooky blood red eyes, and legs that are set right at the back of their bodies…
In Australia, our Pelicans, like our Magpies, are black and white, and they have the largest bills in the bird world. Here’s one next to a Pied Cormorant.
…and a couple resting comfortably on the island in the middle of the lake…
Finally, my favourite bird of the day, a Welcome Swallow. A native to Australia and Melanesia, this little one happily posed for photos…
They’re only small – about 15cm (6″) long including their split tails – and their iridescent blue heads and backs were stunning…
A few months ago, I wrote a post about Living Within Our Means, in which I talked about finding the free services that our cities have to offer. For us this year, it’s been discovering the bird life at Sydney Olympic Park, just a short twenty minute drive from home. All of our bird posts can now be found here.
Tell me, are any of these birds familiar to you? I’m quite curious about how far they fly – I know some of them never travel off our shores, and I know that pelicans in other countries aren’t black and white. I’d love to hear more about the birds in your part of the world!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
I should try and get some shots of the our swallows for you. They are a little different to yours and I would have to look up their proper name.
Have a super day Celia.
:-) Mandy xo
Mandy, I would LOVE to see them if you can get a photo! They move so fast though – I think we were just lucky that we came across the little Welcome Swallows sunning themselves by the water! :)
Celia, I swear, you should write a book. It would be filled with your beautiful photos and recipes and everyone in the world would buy it. <3
We have seagulls, crows, finches and cranes (that I don't care for because every few years they try to eat our koi) Once we had a family of ducks take a walk around our yard. In the spring we have hummingbirds and doves nesting.
Ah, you lovely woman, now wouldn’t that be nice? Like opening a shop where you just make and sell whatever you feel like.. :) Hummingbirds – we never get them here, but I think they’re amazing!
How lovely. You are so right about what is on our doorsteps for free!
Thanks Pat! xx
Beautiful birds! I love bird watching. I remember the Pukekos from our trip to New Zealand. They were everywhere!
We have sparrows, chickadees, bald eagles, robins, blue jays, blue birds, warblers, swallows, owls, hawks, ducks, geese, herons, crows, ravens, loons. The list goes on and on!
Have a great time exploring!
Bald eagles! I think birds of prey are amazing to watch Manuela! We’ve caught a glimpse of our local Sea Eagle, but nothing else yet!
What a sight for sore eyes! My younger son would be in his element seeing all these different species of birds. He usually picks destinations for holidays based on the bird life he will be likely to see. How fortunate you are to be able to see all these so near.
Jeanette, it really is a treat to have them so close by. There are still parts of the park that we’re yet to explore.
Lovely images Celia. I love watching the birds and as we maintain birdbaths right through our incredibly long dry summers we get a lot of the local birdlife here for a drink and a splash in the early evening before bed. Obviously the cormorants and pelicans are conspicious by their absence ;)
Thanks Fran. We’ve been amazed at the diversity of birds so close to where we live!
People don’t realise how many birds are around unless they start looking for them. Suddenly there are birds everywhere! :)
I saw a birds very like the little swallow on the way to Casa Debbio today. I was in the car or I would have tried to get a photo. We have woodpeckers near the house but I can’t see them.
Your photos are amazing! Birds are quite difficult to photograph.
Woodpeckers! I’ve never seen anything like that! And thank you – the secret to bird photos I think is to take 300, then weed out the bad ones.. :)
You’re an amazing photographer Celia – it’s not easy to get good shots of wildlife since they aren’t always cooperative. Is it my imagination or do the 2 birds in your first photo have hair product on to slick back their feathers?
Diane, it does look a bit like that, doesn’t it? :) I was just telling Deb above that I took squillions of photos, then just got lucky with the ones that I posted. Thank goodness for digital photography – not something I’d have been able to afford if we were still using film! :)
That’s funny Celia because I was just talking with my husband the other night about how the film was reasonable but the processing was expensive & it was considered FAST if you got your pictures back in a week. Can you imagine now having to wait a week to see if your specials photos even came out? I brought it up because I was trying to give my husband some tips on sort of aiming the camera actually at something – he has a tendency to just point in any direction & click. We used to get vacation pictures back – lots of sky & ocean…I’d see this little tiny spec out in the ocean & he’d say “oh yeah, that was a whale”. Could have fooled me.
Hahaha…you’ll need to teach him how to use the zoom, Di! :)
Hi there Celia – I live about 20 minutes south of Nowra and we enjoy a variety of local bird species. Like you I photograph as many as I can including satin bower birds who came to raid the last of my tiny tomato harvest LOL. Last year after bushfires in the area we had daily visits from a pair of Gang Gangs. He would sit on watch while she drank from our bird bath and had a tidy up in the bath then she would sit as sentinel for him then they would fly off. This continued for a week. I managed some good pictures, shame I can’t post them here, the markings on their feathers were so pretty and his fluffy red head dress feathers were marvellous. Best wishes to you and yours Sandra
Thanks Sandra! I had to look up Gang Gangs, I’d never seen them before. Aren’t they a beautiful bird!
Wow, great shots Celia. We have a heron that often visits our pond to eat the fish and looks like some prehistoric creature as it rises up and away. Bill always calls herons Frank, but I have no idea why. Pretty little sparrow. Next time can we have accompanying bird calls please?
I’m going to do that from now on. All herons will be referred to as Frank. Capturing calls is harder, because I don’t have a zoom microphone to match the zoom lens on my camera! :)
Lovely post, Celia. Yes we have pelicans, kookaburras, magpies, welcome swallows, willie wagtails, swamp hens and lots of others. We are lucky to have eagles – both sea and wedge-tailed. The wedgies nest in our cypress trees. Watching birds and native animals is a great pleasure for us. There is an app callled ‘Oz Atlas’ which is part of the Atlas of Living Australia project (www.ala.org.au). You can record what you see on the app and so contribute to the project. It has lots of info as well.
Thanks so much Meg, I’ve downloaded the app. Eagles! We keep going back to Newington Armory to see if we can spot them – we saw one riding the thermals above the Parramatta River last time we were there, but it was a looong way up! Also saw three Spoonbills flying in formation – that was the highlight of that visit!
Great photos, Celia! What a lovely family activity…sort of a living treasure hunt :-)
Jaqi, it really is! I suggested to Pete that we pick a bird and then go looking for it, and he just rolled his eyes at me – clearly that’s not how birding works.. haha
What a coincidence. I just spent the last 30 minutes listening to bird calls-but the bird calls of birds from Chile. Birds on the brain :)
Chile on the brain, more like it darling! :)
Great pictures, I love your site.
Thank you for stopping by! :)
Celia ~ fantastic – hope you do not mind my reposting to all my friends/blogfriends as this is such a humongous lesson of one of the riches we have. I have to admit I didn’t know the half of it and yes, even with my very old computer/software I was able to see all! Wonderful, wonderful post!! Thanks!!
So glad you enjoyed it, Eha! :)
Yet more beautiful photos Celia:-)
Thanks Jody! This was a fun post to put together!
So many nice photos of birds are not easy to come by, great job! The only two you showed that we have in Alice are the Willie Wagtails and a small kingfisher. We don’t have magpies, but we do have Butcher Birds. Very interesting post.
Ardys, do you mean the Kookaburra? We get so many of them around Sydney, but we hear them more than see them! I love Butcherbirds! :)
I’m not especially tech savvy so I hope that link works. It’s of the Stone Curlew’s call. On a small island just off the coast of Brisbane there is a small colony of these nocturnal birds and I love listening, in the quiet night, to their mournful call. I have occasionally spotted one during the day, they’re quite pretty I think and they do stay stone statue still, they blend quite well into a dry, scrub background. I also love the call of the Currawong. we sometimes hear it around West End in Brisbane but not down by Moreton Bay. Great post Celia and lovely photos.
[smiling!] Wistful rather than mournful, but oh so special!!
Jan darling, wonderful link, thank you! We get a lot of Currawongs here in the suburbs as well – I hear them on almost a daily basis!
I love our variety of bird life here in Australia Celia, so many beauties indeed. I just wish we had hummingbirds too, they are like gorgeous little jewls with wings! xox
Becca, you must have some amazing birds down by the water and parks in Canberra!
lovely post Celia. Aren’t we lucky to have all those birds at our doorstep.
Loved Jan’s link too. It’s been ages since I heard the journal cry of a curlew.
Brydie, does Centennial Park have a lot of birds to see? I haven’t been there for years…
Beautiful post, Celia. Love seeing the birds native to your country. You took some amazing photos, too. Though we’ve plenty of birds native to this part of the continent, living in the city does limit the number of species. Luckily, there are parks and preserves very close nearby where many of the birds can be seen.
John, we’re so lucky to have so many birds both in the suburbs and at reserves so close by. Although I had no idea how many until I actually started paying attention!
Celia, I feel very fortunate; a lot of the birds you photographed are regular visitors to my dam……..although no pukeko, pelican, black duck or magpies…….lucky you to be able to see all of them.
Elaine, how fabulous to have them in your dam! The Swamp Hens are such a funny looking bird, and they have this long legged gait as well which cracks me up! :)
Celia, what a beautiful post and may I just say how very talented you are in photographing birdlife! Some beauties there! So nicely captured.
Thanks hon, I just took lots of photos and weeded out the bad ones! :)
Some great photos Celia! Have you seen any of the rare migratory wader/shore birds at the ‘Waterbird Refuge’ yet? It’s worth taking a bike ride around there to seem before they head north to China/Siberia for the winter!
Hi Jeannie, yes, that was our first post at the beginning of March! :)
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2014/03/10/sydney-waterbirds/
It’s amazing how if we just stop and take the time to look around us, how much we can discover and see. I am not familiar with many of these birds and I think I’m guilty of rushing around too much. You should apply for a job at National Geographic to photograph wildlife as you do it so well and make it look effortless xx
Oooh, chuffed to get such a compliment from the photographer’s wife, thanks Charlie! We’re lucky to have these places so close by. One day we’ll have to make it back up your way and pay another visit to the zoo! :)
Great post and pics Celia, I’m afraid I’m dreadful at identifying birds! Going to visit with hubby, looks lovely and peaceful. I don’t know much about birds but on one of our previous trips years ago to Canada I was very excited when someone pointed out a hummingbird to me :) Last trip there my 7 year old nephew who has been well trained by my father in law pointed out several birds and their type, put me to shame!
Stefanie, I’m completely rubbish at it too, but Pete seems to know a lot of the birds, and we can figure out the rest using the bird finder website at http://www.birdsinbackyards.net. I’d love to see a hummingbird!
Those are stunning photos. It must have taken you ages to take all those pictures. Each one a masterpiece.
Thanks Maureen, it did take a while! Great fun though!
Loved the pictures!! I think I’d be there at the park every day, well maybe not every day, but if its free why not. I love to read in parks too. Its so peaceful. The only bird you photo’d that I’ve seen here, is possibly the Black Cormorant. Hubby and I were taking a ferry out to Mackinac Island thru Lake Huron/Michigan and we saw the black birds bobbing about in the waves. They looked perfectly happy just riding the waves and watching boats. I just love Kookaburras. I’ve only seen them in animal zoos/parks though. We have Blue Herons in Kentucky and occasionally one will be walking up the shallow creek that borders our backyard. They are magnificent!
The Black Cormorants are on all the waterways around here – I love watching them perched out of the water, drying their wings! :)
Celia – what amazing shots! I love the Herons!!! I now follow you too.
Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed the pics! :)
more great bird photos celia..i saw about 20 cormorants on a walk along a local river yesterday..they looked a bit like ‘the little black cormorants’ in your photo..x
Jane, have you had a look at the Birds in Backyards website? There’s so much interesting stuff there. http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/
When we looked up Cormorants, there were Little Black Cormorants, which are a completely different species to Great Cormorants, which are also black. Same with Pied Cormorants as well. I think the ones we have on the Parramatta River nearby are Little Black ones as well, but I need to go back for a better look! :)
Late late late but must comment because I love bird watching and love your photos… I am sharing this with my mum because she’ll enjoy it too!
Kaves, I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Haven’t seen a penguin in its natural environment yet, though! :) All the bird posts are now here:
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/birds/