This week’s bird of the week is the brolga.
Last Saturday I was exploring a wetland bird sanctuary called “Fivebough Wetlands” which is situated in and among cow pastures near the town of Leeton, New South Wales, Australia.
The cows looked interesting too, so I took a picture. To my wonder and surprise, large birds called brolgas – a species I was on the lookout for – were in the picture, walking among the cows.
Brolgas are obviously a relative of the whooping cranes and sandhill cranes we are familiar with in North America. Like those well-known birds, they are quite unusual, and unique to Australia. They are a little more common than North American white cranes though – they can apparently be seen flocking in the hundreds in some places.
So the lesson the brolga left me with was, pay careful attention to your surroundings. The brolga can be a meter and half tall or so as you see in my photos. When you least expect it, one of Australia’s largest birds may walk into your view!
