Courageous Eastern Spinebill (Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris), Australian National Botanic Gardens, ACT.

This little Spinebill is keeping a lookout for much larger New Holland honeyeaters and Red wattle birds, from which it was copping a hard time while trying to feed amongst Grevillea and Banksia. Luckily these dense food bushes also afford it with some protection. It was quite happy to settle within a few metres of me providing it was amongst dense foliage. Although I wonder if it thought proximity to me kept its more belligerent honeyeater cousins at bay. As I observed it from such a close range I felt intimately its nervousness; it had the interesting habit of sipping, then pivoting to check behind, then sipping again, and repeating this process several times before before moving on to another flower or a hideout. In this photo however the little bird is simply resting and assessing its potentially hazardous situation.

 

Very low light in the bushes, combined with the qualities of my camera gear, forced me to use slow shutter speeds and just hope for a still subject.

Done