Collecting birds’ nests would have to be one of the weirdest activities around.
The Logan Bird Lady, otherwise known as Trixie Benbrook from Kingston, has around 30 nests which were formerly home to 15 bird species.
But why would anyone put together a comprehensive collection of native bird accommodation?
In Trixie’s case it’s because she uses the nests to educate people about birds found in Logan.
She takes the nests along when she speaks to various groups about region’s birds to illustrate the amount of effort birds go to when building their homes.
A wildlife carer who has specialised in birds for the past 30 years, Trixie is passionate about looking after birds in need.
She’s equally passionate about building peoples’ knowledge when it comes to her feathered friends.
When mycitylogan visited Trixie’s home, a dozen temporary avian residents were in situ because they’d been injured, traumatised or abandoned as babies.
She also had around the same number of permanent residents that couldn’t be released because they were imprinted on humans or did not have the skills needed to survive in the wild.
She specialises in birds which don’t eat seed in the wild, which means she doesn’t see many parrots.
“Restricted aviary space and the fact that meat-eaters don’t necessarily get along with seed-eaters means I try to only take in things like peewees, crows and tawny frogmouths as well as small and tiny insect-eating species,” Trixie said.
Her back yard, which is planted with large trees, has 10 aviaries and her back veranda has many smaller cages that are used when birds need one-one-one treatment that can’t be delivered when birds are flying around in aviaries.
Three rainbow lorikeets that had been injured were awaiting release after rehabilitation, with their cages carefully labelled so that the birds could be released at the locations where they had been found.
As part of her activities to spread the word about caring for birds Trixie produced a book of guidelines on how to care for birds of many species.
Available to other wildlife carers, the book has coloured photos of baby birds at various ages so they can be recognised at a glance, making it simple to work out what they should be fed.
An excellent photographer and a recognised writer, Trixie’s range of greeting cards featuring her professional-standard photos are on sale in several Logan post offices.
Trixie is happy to talk to any groups that want to learn about native birds and she can be reached at 3208 3512 or [email protected].
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