Birdwatching and Photography of Australian Birds.
Now Posted
Current Blog Post: Winter Birding in the Southern Highlands NSW
My Bird of the Week: The Hardhead (found within the above post)
Recent Blogs: (see the side-bar on this page and the current blog page for links to the last ten blogs).
Birding Information, Useful Links and Helpful Tips: Check out my InfoTips page
MyBirdSightings: is a recent page addition, listing the birds sighted with date and location in 2017.
MeetingAussiebirder is a page on my website for those visiting from overseas or other states, wanting to meet me for a coffee or join me for a birding experience in the Sydney area.
Helpful Counselling Material on Learning Valuable Life Skills From Our Birds: Check out my BirderSanctuary page.
Read the latest independent review of my book “What Birds Teach Us” click on this link.
Read the latest independent study on the Health Benefits of Bird Watching. Then read mine…
Why Birding? What’s so great about it?
My wife and I are both ‘recreational birders’, which simply means we love observing, sharing and photographing birds from all over our country. Below are seven good reasons why birding is good for a happy and healthy 2017.
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Birding helps bond family relationships. My wife and I both enjoy it together, and my children and grandchildren are starting to enjoy it with us. It is something inexpensive that we can do together.
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Birding is a healthy pastime because it gets you outdoors in the fresh air, and gets you exercising by walking. It uses your senses and mind in a restorative manner, being a pleasant variation from your indoor domestic life.
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Birding is a very interesting hobby, full of variety, like Forrest Gump’s ‘box of chocolates’, ‘you do not know what you will get’ each time you go out, which adds a touch of excitement to it. This is because Australia has such a rich variety of bird species, and also variety in sightings because birds occur in different areas and some at different times of year. Because most birds fly, and can move about, they make each visit to a particular habitat different on each occasion.
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Birding is a good pastime to make friends. Birders are generally friendly, knowledgeable people, enthusiastic and keen to share their knowledge with others of like mind. We find that many of our dear friends have shared how they are becoming more aware of the birds and nature around them due to their association with us. It is another great way to help stay off Alzheimer’s and dementia, as it keeps the mind active and learning.
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Birding is great to stimulate young minds and bodies to a healthy lifestyle, it increases their awareness of life around them, making them more ‘mindful’ and appreciative, not just of birds but of the other aspects of nature and life that they observe.
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Birding helps us live better lives. We learn a lot about life watching the birds, for this reason Jesus Christ even told us to ‘watch and learn from the birds’. My recent book release “What Birds Teach Us” which is featured on my Birdbook page on this website, shows how we can apply some of the peculiar characteristics of our birds to our life, to do life better.
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Birding has concomitant rewards because birds live in lovely, sometimes beautiful places, thus you get to enjoy more than just birds. We include birding in our holidays and weekends, and we are always blessed with a beautiful appreciation of our rainforests, bush, seascape, riverscape, flora and fauna found in the areas we bird in.
It does not matter how young or old we are, we can all enjoy birding, just like my granddaughter.
“What Birds Teach Us” my current book release, can now be also purchased here online through PayPal or from Koorong.com. It is now also available also at five major NSW National Parks (Environment & Heritage Shops). Ask your nearest one if they have it in stock, if not get them to get it in. Broome Bird Observatory also sells my book. It is easier and cheaper to purchase your copy here from the side-bar. This is a great gift idea, read the reviews on my Birdbook page.
It is not until you actually hold this book in your hands that you can fully appreciate its beauty, simplicity and yet profoundly wise and helpful encouragement to do life well. You not only learn interesting facts and peculiar characteristics about Australian birds, but these characteristics are applied to your life assisting to achieve a better future and quality of life with a more satisfying outcome. Check out my Birdbook page for more information. 
NOTE: All photos, videos and music used on this website are photographed, composed, performed by the site owner and remains his copyrighted property, unless otherwise stated. The use of any material that is not original material of the site owner is duly acknowledged as such. © W. A. Hewson 2015, 2016, 2017
Goodness and neglected to specify I truly cherish birds!…I truly making the most of your seasons video with the empowering words, your delightful photographs and adored the melody and music. Much obliged to you!..
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Thanks Mona for your appreciative comment I am glad it blessed you. Have a great weekend!
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Its awesome! Cherish the photographs. My most loved photograph is of the Spotted Pardote, I am some of the time favored to see them around my home..
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Goodness and neglected to specify I truly cherish birds!…I truly making the most of your seasons video with the empowering words, your excellent photographs and adored the tune and music. Much thanks to you!..
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Hi, I was looking at some of the great photos that you have taken in the Wingham national park, the photo of the different coloured Rainbow Lorikeet, it was very interesting to see that, are they common in that area?
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Hi Joseph, thanks for your welcome comment, the olive-backed variant Rainbow Lorikeet that I posted on my visit to the Taree/Wingham area is not a very common mutation, and this is the only one I have seen. There are many different mutations for different birds, and in particular for the lorikeets. Sadly I can not find the link to the website article that had documented the many variations of these birds. If I find it I will email it to you. Enjoy birding!
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What’s the secret to identifying birds?
It’s not an easy question to answer.
More than 700 kinds of birds live in North America and more than 10,000 worldwide, enough variety to keep anyone absolutely amazed for a lifetime.
But you probably know other people that are able to accurately identify just about every bird.
How do they do it? Do they know some “birding” secret that you don’t?
Actually, yes, they do!
And today I’m going to show you one of my favorite birding pursuit strategies of all time: the Eagle Eye Approach:
https://www.dignitree.com/blogs/news/eagle-eye-approach-to-identifying-birds-of-north-america-the-definitive-guide
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Thank you Mary for sharing this information. We find the shape and manner of the bird helpful from a distance. In Australia we are more likely to hear the bird before see it, so knowing the call is helpful and we have apps for that. Most bird identification comes from the study of the bird as one encounters it usually for the first time. Your information looks very helpful.
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thanks for your sharing, by om hasan jual genset
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I read the new book, “What Birds Teach Us”. Its great! Love the photos. My favorite photo is of the Spotted Pardote, I am sometimes blessed to see them around my home.
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Thanks Jesse, so glad you liked it, yes the Pardies are a favorite when you actually get to see them.
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Oh and forgot to mention I really love birds! 🙂
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That’s great, and I give you free dispensation to draw or paint from any of my pictures, if you will show me your finished work:-).
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I really enjoyed your seasons video with the encouraging words, your beautiful photos and loved the song and music. Thank you! It’s great that you share Scriptures and your faith on this website and your lovely blog, “MyBeautifulSeries”. Really enjoy the photos on there too. Blessings to you and your wife. Thank you, again. ~ Janette. 🙂
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Blessings also to you dear sis, your Scripture art is likewise spiritually delightful and commendable. Thank you so much for your encouraging words and for checking out my site. The Birder Sanctuary is also a page on my site we have devoted to the spiritual application of bird peculiarities to our lives. Thank you for your warm blessings to my wife and I, likewise I return the same to you and your family. Shalom. and richest blessings… Ashley:-)
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Hi Mister I really need to know when does Black Winged Stilt live in India. I am looking forward for your answer.
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The Black-winged Stilt is a migrant to many countries of the world including Asia, and may migrate to Africa and other warmer climates during winter months. As I am an Australian birder my knowledge is more with Australian bird activity and how this bird moves in our country. However, to my knowledge, the Black-winged stilt is found in India from around November to March and possibly longer. Hope this helps. I suggest you look up this bird in a birding field guide for Indian birds, or search the internet for more specific times and places.
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I really like this!
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Thanks for visiting my site Myra
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Too cute to be devils! I enjoyed your background music…you’re multi-talented!!
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Thanks so much Elisa, producing my own music is my second hobby to photography and birding, though I don’t do as much recording these days, I like backing my movie clips to add character. My DVD set Ashley’s Beautiful Series incorporated my photography and my own unique soothing music. My attention at the moment has been in completing the second draft of my book “What do the birds teach us?” I hope to publish later in the year.
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Ha, ha. Those devils look cute, not as ferocious as I have read. They do have imposing teeth though. Your blog is filled with such interesting animals and birds. Always a pleasure to visit here.
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Thanks Donna, these guys are young ones, when you see the adults fighting over food in the wild, they may give a different impression. They often bare battle scars from fights over food. Their jaws are one of the most powerful, you should hear them crunching bone, it is quite eerie.
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