Brilliant Bird Attractors

A splendid sign of spring is the return of our honey-eating birds. These are especially attracted by two plants, strategically placed near the glass sliding-doors of our family room.

It is a joy for us to watch the birds feeding in the two large grevilleas. The largest shrub, Grevillea 'Caloundra Gem', produces a profuse display of pale pink blooms. The spring display is the most magnificent, but it will continue to yield its beautiful blooms throughout the warmer seasons and into the autumn.

The other shrub, Grevillea 'Honey Gem' bears a little later and its display is less profuse. However, what it lacks in volume of flowers, it makes up with its gorgeous golden blossoms.

A Noisy Miner inspects the Caloundra Gem

Both shrubs will grow to a height of about three metres. Our plants are becoming too tall, placing the new flowers above our line of vision from our family room. Consequently, we will be pruning the shrubs rather heavily in either October or November, taking off up to a metre of growth from our 'Caloundra Gem'.

These shrubs are wonderful attractors of birds. In fact, the birds which feed on our trees have become rather comfortable with our presence, and even with the presence of our environmentally-responsible cat! The gawdily-coloured lorikeets no longer fly from the trees when we pass below.

Grevillea 'Honey Gem'

Another visitor to the grevilleas has been an Eastern Spinebill. An image of the Spinebill can be found in our 'Wild Friends' tab.