The White Eared Honeyeater Poem by Francis Duggan

In the high woods of Belgrave South in the cool days of the Spring
The white eared honeyeater in his territory sing
White patch on ears, black throat, bluish head and mostly lightish green
A bird in woodland often heard but seldom ever seen.

They build their nest close to the ground close to a taller tree
On bush or shrub or fallen branch, bark or fallen debris
A cup shaped nest of bark and grass built with painstaking care
And wove and bound with spiders webs and lined with bits of hair.

And in her nest so hard to find the female bird she lay
Two to three oval shaped eggs with brown spots through the gray
And on branch of pittosporum or gum or wattle tree
The male bird sing loud as he can to mark his territory.

The cool winds of October with the slightest touch of chill
Blow up through the high woodlands across South Belgrave hill
And the small bird with the big bird song patrols his boundary
The white eared honeyeater pipes his cheery melody.