Wax-eye (Silvereye, White-eye, Tauhou)

I left Christchurch at 11 this morning in 17 deg C heat and it increased by about 5 deg for every 100km I travelled so that by the time I got home it was over 30. Thank goodness for my convertible - just a pity I don't have air con in the house!

I haven't seen a wax-eye at my place for a while, probably because food is easier for them to find at this time of year. When I got home from Christchurch and was putting my groceries away I found this pear in an almost liquid state in my fridge. Rather than put it straight in the bin I thought I'd see if any birds wanted a go at it first.

A pair of wax-eyes arrived within minutes and were stuck into a great feast by the time I noticed them. I'm not sure if it was because of the extreme ripeness of the pear or the fact that it was chilled from the fridge - because it's 34 deg C out there right now.

I realise this is a bad photo - taken through a window and from too far away so it's cropped beyond reason, BUT, like yesterday's bellbird, the wax-eye has a brush tipped tongue for feeding on nectar, and you can see the brush tip here. Tongue detail best seen in large - just pretend you can't see how blurry that makes the over-cropped image. Some of what you see under his tongue is pear juice but you can also see the tiny bristles at the tip.