Crimson Rosella and Red Spider Flowers
The Crimson Rosella is a regular visitor to the Sydney area. Here it is seen feeding on a grevillea and below, on wattle seed pods. The Crimson Rosella (Platycercus elegans) is a parrot native to eastern and south eastern Australia which has been introduced to New Zealand and and Norfolk Island. It is commonly found in, but not restricted to, mountain forests and gardens. The bird sounds in the background include the whip bird, who has proved fairly elusive to me so far, because of its shyness and its habit of foraging very close to the ground in dense scrub. The Flowers are Red Spider Flowers (grevillea speciosa). This species is a shrub, growing up to 3 metres in height. Its leaves are narrow-obovate to round or elliptic to narrow-elliptic . The flowers which are red, or occasionally pink, appear predominantly from late winter to late spring (August to November in Australia) but appear sporadically throughout the year.