Birds Perched, Birds Flying, Birds Aground

Namibia
Wetland Birds
June 28, 1999
The stamp set depicts Grus carunculatus, Pterocles burchelli, Glareola nuchalis, Pelecanus onocrotalus.

Sc#3922 2013 60c 40 Spotted Pardalote. Pardalotus Quadragintus.
One of Australia's rarest birds.
...and such a beautiful fellow.

The birds deliberately clip the leaf stalks of the manna-gum tree, a species of eucalyptus, with their bills. In many cases the tree responds to the wounds by exuding sticky and nutritious manna gum over the next few days, which the birds harvest. Biologists call this foraging behaviour "mining" or "farming".

"Mining for tree exudates is an unusual foraging behaviour among birds," says Case. "This is the first record of an Australian bird that mines trees."