Just follow sound of the Bell

The high, bell like notes of the Bell Miner is not only distinctive, but it can direct you to their location. And if you find one nesting, it is ore than likely that you will find others close by.

The Bell Miner is the smallest of the miners and is a medium-large  honeyeater. It is mostly olive-green, with a short, down-curved, bright yellow bill, a red-orange bare eye patch and orange-yellow feet and legs. Males are slightly larger, but otherwise the sexes are similar.

August usually is the nesting time, and large numbers can be found close to Maitland.

Dense Bell Miner colonies usually stay in the same places for many years, keeping other species away from their territories. In fact they may be even more packed than Noisy Miners.

Occasionally isolated Bell Miners are seen in thick vegetation bordering streams, probably moving from one colony to another, but it is not known how colonies are established.

Only females build the nest but my experience of photographing them showed me that large numbers of the birds feed the chicks, sometimes queuing up to await their turn.

They mainly eat insects, especially psyllids (tiny insects that feed on leaves). Interestingly Bell Miners maintain psyllid populations at high levels by protecting them from other birds and by maintaining sufficiently large territories so that they don't over-feed on them.

The helpers who feed feed the chicks are usually young or unpaired birds, but may also include other breeding adults who are also raising their own young.

Bell Miners normally nest low down, making he photographer’s work easy.

My method in recording the birds was to set the camera with a short lens, and to get the most impact I used short duration flash, power cut to 1/16.

There are two reasons for me using this method.

One, we were in a shady area where the light was not to good, and two, we were able to freeze the action as the birds flew into the nest.

I also used a slave light at the back. This in turn gave me better separation from the background. I took a great number of shots as they came in to feed the chicks. It was great fun.