Forty Shades of Green

1932 Definitive

Enter the Lyrebird which despite those feathers dwells on the ground and only occasionally leaves it when gliding downhill. The artist decided for impact to portray it with its feathers erect, although most often they are folded in line with the body.  In season it will sing all day and is well known as a mimic of sounds.  They scratch through leaf litter with their feet to uncover their food of choice, insects, although they will occasionally eat things like frogs

1999: Small Pond

Australia's Stamp Collecting Month theme was a small pond and its inhabitants all painted by the Wildlife Artist Kevin Stead. The stamps feature the Magnificent Tree Frog (Litoria splendida), the largest tree frog in Australia which I think must have the best name for a frog.  Maybe it calls itself El Splendida. I always enjoy a word playing cancel, and this one is Hoppers Crossing (a suburb of Melbourne)  The other stamp is the Sacred Kingfisher, its name derives from the fact that in legend it was believed to have power over the waves. Its iridescent colour doesn't really fit this week's theme so  

1994: Definitive

 I will have to travel to Japan for a suitably green themed stamp which shows the black and white Greater Pied Kingfisher against a green canopy

1993: Endangered Fauna

The first stamp I found when searching for this week's theme was on the Australian FDC so my original intention was to populate my post with frogs but it proved harder than I thought. They all seemed to be multicoloured or brown, however I did find another green one, The Table Mountain Ghost Frog (heleophryne rosei) or Rose's Ghost Frog. As the name implies it is only found on the slopes of Table Mountain and has adapted to life in fast flowing mountain streams. The tadpoles (which take longer than a year to metamorphose) have sucker like mouth parts which they can use to climb up, or hold on to wet, vertical rocks .  You will notice the marvellously long toes of the adult frog which also provide a good grip on wet rocks.  The stamp is from one of my favourite South African series (I think there were three) of 'Endangered Fauna' and indeed this little fellow is on the critically endangered red list because its habitat is being degraded.

The next stamp is green in all the senses because it celebrates

1965: Reafforestation

    Japan's reafforestation programme whose goal was to maintain the country's biodiversity by planting native trees.

1959: Birds of the Homeland

No lurking Black Stork though despite its enormous range from Europe to Asia. Its environment of choice are wooded areas and marshy wetlands.  The stamp of course is from East Germany so here is one from the other side of the divide at the time

1956: Stamp Day

 from West Germany's Stamp Day celebrated with a pigeon carrying post.  I like the cross-hatching of the stamp. Staying with pigeons this one is perched in a South African tree (from their definitive series of Flowers, Fish and Birds)

The African Green Pigeon rarely comes down to the ground as it forages for fruit in the canopies of trees where it climbs the trunks like parrot.

An entry to Sunday Stamps II theme - the colour green - for more shades of green See It On A Postcard