We have a family of Magpies who live around our back yard and I dig up worms for them. Been going on for about 15 years, and while they are not are close to me like the woman in the video, we talk and do the gardening together. Every year new babies arrive and they are introduced to me. Mrs Fox and Emmie the Malamute are not invited, just me. We have a park near us, that is famous for swooping Magpies; never a problem for me.
My Dad told the story that he had a pet Magpie that talked when he was a kid that used to fly to school with him and sit outside wating to fly back home after school.
Similarly I have a family that live with me and I just love their beautiful warbling. They have never attacked me and are comfortable hanging around with me in the garden and spend a lot of time bathing and just splashing around in the birdbath.
One day I was mowing the back paddock and they were walking behind me in a straight line formation, gorging on all the insects the cut grass was revealing.
The Australian Magpie actually is the largest species of butcherbird. It was misnamed early on as it resembles the magpies of the northern hemisphere but isn’t related. It actually should be called Great Butcherbird or something like that.
The Pied Butcherbird looks like a half-size and Black Butcherbird (its sister species) a three-quarter size maggie
My street has been invaded by cockatoos this morning. Very noisy. There are a couple of trees that are way to big to be planted in nature strips where they seem to be feasting on seed pods. Then the seed pods (diameter of a 20 cent piece) are raining down on the cars parked below with a ‘thunk’ sound. Seems like a hail storm. Quite comical.
There are so many more than show up in these photos. Just everywhere.
Not sure if this is a common experience or not, I feel like (growing up) it was pretty rare to see Corellas, with Galahs predominant in terms of grazing parrots.
Now seems to have swapped?
When they hit the leafy eastern suburbs in 2018 in plague proportions, the cause was partly attributed to the bounty of food on introduced species of trees, in particular liquidambar.
I do remember the mess from the cockatoos marauding Chinese pistachios planted on Canberra nature strips. They break off branches to feed themselves.
They are also partial to the ornamental pomegranates and nuts on pencil pines, plus acorns from oak trees on nature strips.
Makes for more varied supply in the suburbs than from native trees in the rural areas and seasonal crops.
Almond plantings in the Riverina have been a bonus for the cockatoos. Two scouts do a reconnaissance late afternoon.
For a long time there was a resident group of Gang Gangs in Cheltenham Victoria . I am not sure if they are still there, but its sad to hear they are on the endangered list. ( Poaching?)
Its funny that the urban populations of native parrots, sulphur crested cockatoos, corellas, galahs love exotic trees and grasses. Bird equivalent of eating mexican, chinese or italian food instead of the monotonous old grilled lamb chops we used to eat last century.
Vast numbers of Corellas roost communally in groups of trees overnight and change location fairly often.
At dawn they start screeching again and then they fan out in all directions looking for sporting fields for a meal of salad. They just love the tender shoots of kikuyu grass, but they do also eat seeds and fruits from a variety of trees, eg. some as weird as cotoneaster, various conifers etc but on the weekend I saw them eating olives.
Corellas hang around in trees all the time at Hall’s Gap, which is where i mostly saw them before the last few years. I’ve only ever seen them on the ground in Melb though.
It is weird to see native birds preferring introduced plants though. I live on a hilltop, on a large steep block of remnant bushland though it’s just a suburban street from the front. There’s some native birds i just never see in the actual indigenous bush part of my block, but are all over the surrounding streets, grazing happily on nature strips and lawns and ornamental trees etc. Galahs, rainbow lorikeets, magpie larks etc.
When we saw them on the olive tree one landed on the wire just above us while we stood and watched them.
Apparently that bird liked to show off and obliged by hanging upside down off the wire for about a minute screeching at us flapping and stretching its wings while we said “hello cocky” in the usual way .
For all we know, he was probably telling us to “fark off”
Little Corellas able to perch on slighter branches which can’t support the larger birds, some of the larger birds, including the Victorian Ravens ( supposed to be the smartest birds) cut off branches for use as tools.
I’d love to get a pic of an azure kingfisher. Had a very easy opportunity a number of years ago but didn’t think about getting a picture until too late. They are super electric coloured!
I reckon Galah populations have remained stable, but corella populations have definitely exploded (mainly Little but Long-billed too).
Rainbow Lorikeets were uncommon in much of Melbourne until about 1990, quiet common by 2000, and are now one of the most common urban birds.
My favourite one though is the increase of King Parrots. They are resident year-round along the Yarra in Richmond; when I was a kid you had to go up into the hills to see them.
