On Singing Honeyeaters Poem by Francis Duggan

Familiar to many and familiar to me
The singing honeyeaters birds I often do see
They sing in duets on a bush or a tree
Though not the finest of songsters as most would agree
In her cup shaped nest of bark, grasses and rootlets bound with spiders webs the female bird lay
Two to three pale white to buff eggs with brown spots from view hidden away
From August to January in their breeding time of year
Though all year round birds one can see and can hear
Brown uppers and grey brown streaked unders and longish tail of reddish brown
Birds often seen in places where bushes and trees are and even in parks of the town
As well as nectar they eat spiders, moths, flies and arboreal insects and small bees
And other tiny life forms they find on the trees
Known as singing honeyeaters though not blessed with the finest song
But once seen and once heard one cannot get them wrong.