Red Wattlebirds

Where flowering trees are one often them does see

Against other honeyeaters they aggressively defend their territory

Mottled brown gray birds of humans quite shy

With red fleshy wattles and some yellow unders not hard to identify

The female lay pale blotched pinkish eggs of two or three

In cup shaped nest of twigs high on a branch of a tree

That the male and the female with aggression defend

At breeding time they do not treat anyone as a friend

To be different from other birds one of their claims to fame

Red wattlebirds for them does seem an apt name

The red wattlebirds you see in your backyard today

Tomorrow in distance may be far away

Migratory honeyeaters with a rather coarse song

Once see and once heard you will never again get them wrong.