Isolation Antidotes (35): Flirting With a Fantail

Staying in the vein of the home bubble, I was working in the yard on Friday, moving a mass of mulch from its storage place at the edge of our garden to a new patch around some of our small trees that I had prepared for that purpose, when I noticed that I had some very attentive company. One of our favorite native birds (and one of New Zealand’s best-known) is the cheeky little fantail (Rhipidura placabilis), very familiar to hikers, as it is insectivorous and very bold, and fantails frequently flit about in very close proximity, hoping for small insects stirred into flight by the hikers’ passing. They will often approach to within a meter of a person, but they are rather hard to catch with a camera, as they are almost constantly in energetic motion. Their common name comes from their tendency to extend their tailfeathers dramatically into a wide fan. This one was obviously hoping for insects rising from the mulch, but did not produce this characteristic display for my camera during our brief encounter. I have seen this bird almost daily for the past week or so, and will try again (and again) to see if I can get that special shot. Stay tuned!