Tag Archives: Silverbills

The Numbers Game #50

Gullies on the side of Kohala Mountain are illuminated by early morning sun
Early morning light on the Kohala Mountain hillside.

The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 171. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.

A Gold Dust Day Gecko on a pink banana.
A switchback on the Kilauea Iki Trail in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
A switchback on the Kilauea Iki Trail.
ripples on a pond
Ripples in the water of ʻAimakapā Fishpond at Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park.
A Common Waxbill feeds on cane grass seeds
A Common Waxbill feeds on cane grass seeds.
Hawaiian Stilts in a pond at Kaloko-Honokahau Park
Hawaiian Stilts.
African Silverbills at a window
African Silverbills at a window. See the full sequence here

Feed me

A baby bird calling for food in Hawaii
A baby African Silverbill cries for food.
A Nutmeg Mannikin feeds on cane grass seeds in Hawaii
A Nutmeg Mannikin stuffing itself with cane grass seeds

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Feed the Birds.’ See more responses here.

I don’t feed the birds here, but they seem to have no trouble feeding themselves, with the notable exception of the one in the top photo. Here’s a selection.

A Hawaiian Stilt snags a meal in Hawaii
An Hawaiian Stilt prepares to eat a tasty morsel fished form the water.
A Hawaiian Amakihi feeds at a mamane flower in Hawaii
An Hawaiian Amakihi feeds at a Mamane flower.
A cattle egret catches an anole in Hawaii
A Cattle Egret snags an anole for lunch.
A Japanese White-eye feeds at a bougainvillea in Hawaii
A Japanese White-eye feeds on a bougainvillea flower.

A bit of a dust up

Birds bathing in the dirt in Hawaii
Birds bathing in a puddle in Hawaii
Birds bathing in a puddle in Hawaii

These House Sparrows enthusiastically embraced a dust bath. They’d just hopped over from a wash in a puddle, which they shared with a couple of African Silverbills. Even there, they got engaged in a tussle, all in good fun I expect.

African silverbill

African Silverbills gather on a branchAn African Silverbill perches on a branch

Small flocks of African silverbills can often be seen, flitting from tree to tree, on the dry side of the Big Island. Sometimes they’ll be mixed in with other birds such as nutmeg mannikins, but this group was all silverbills.