TomKal foto

Presentation of this species brought back some associations and memories of budgerigars. Zebra finches, that I photographed in the heart of Australia in Uluru, are gregarious birds. Hundreds of kilometers of "rust" ground, scantily covered with grass and even more rarely with small trees is a natural environment not only of Zebra finch, but also of budgies. This bird is probably most commonly found among parrots bred in Poland. Once years ago, admiring the birds I built quite a large aviary near my house. I dug in the ground halved trunks of birch, hollowed out the trunks making holes on the top and hung nest boxes at the rear part of the holes. Aviary was a year-round and the birds accepted it so that during a few years there took place about 200 births. Those were mainly budgies but also cockatiels. Crimson Rosellas attempted to breed three times unsuccessfully. Of course leaving for Australia I wanted to watch them in their natural environment, but I had to be content with the environment itself. Much more time and a guide would be needed to find them in that immeasurable space in the heart of Australia. Budgerigars are found, except the coast, virtually throughout the whole of ​​Australia. Local people in Uluru asked about this species claimed that yes, they were there - everywhere, on endless territory. Well budgerigars were not those that was to be admired by me in their natural environment. But even though it was not planned I several times had the chance to take photos of flock of zebra finches, which landed on the characteristic red rocks of Uluru. Zebra finches were flying in a flock of 20-30 birds and presented images are the results of those moments when nobody disturbed us for a few minutes (no other tourists within 15-20 meters, what did not happen very often). Zebra finches at first sat on a bush or rock watching the area for a while, then flew down to low-lying grass or to the ground and started feeding. And again I encountered the specificity of shooting in Australia. Of course without any camouflage, coming up calmly I could take their pictures from a distance of 7-9. But there were two difficulties we had to take into account. One thing was that this was quite a lively flock of birds. If they sat on the bush, especially when foraging for food in the morning, it did not take much time. So coming closer cannot be too rapid, but being too slow would cause they fly away or down to the ground where shooting would be much more difficult. The second nuisance in the area were medium-size flies. They were actually numerous and made me concentrate on shooting hardly possible. They almost covered me and there was no way to get rid of them. To sum up, I managed to take pictures for the gallery of this colorful bird in the heart of Australia, just like several other species but not in such an impressive quantity. Recording the voice would not be a problem but unfortunately I had no more time left. Taking possibly large number of images was more important to me, as Zebra finch’s voice can be heard in many places in Poland.