There's a group of flowering plants in Australia called Banksias.

They're icons of wild places, what Aussies call the bush, as well as suburban flower gardens.

Australia is home to about 150 plant species in this group.

They're called Banksias because they're all in the genus Banksia.

If you live in Australia,

you know what these things look like. For the rest of us, to describe a typical Banksia flower,

well, it's got a distinct and eye-catching appearance. The flowerhead is large with a cylindrical or cone-like shape.

The color ranges from pale yellow to deep red or brown.

The individual flowers are small, tubular, and packed tightly together.

Many Banksia species are quite beautiful, and that explains their presence in city parks and gardens. Bansias are important

members of Australian ecosystems. The flowers pump out lots of sweet nectar. This sugary liquid is a

food source for all sorts of critters, bees and other insects, bats, rodents, and possums. Oh yes, and birds. Birds in the honey-eater

family, Melophagody, are one of the best examples. These guys love slurping up the honey,

more accurately called the nectar of Banksia flowers. One of my favorite Australian bird species is the New

Holland honey eater, Philodonorous Novi-Halandi. Why New Holland? Because before the land down under was

named Australia, its original European name was New Holland, given to it by the early Dutch

explorers.

The New Holland honey eater is a medium-sized songbird with mostly black plumage.

But it's got bold black and white streaking on its breast, bright patches of yellow

in the wings, and eyes with striking white irises that really pop

against the black facial feathers. The beak is long and slightly down-curved.

I fell in love with this bird while leading a birding tour in Tasmania. They were all over the

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