Vella:
Live and learn. Thanks for the reply.
Your observations about miners not harassing P. Baza when perched fits in
nicely with my own notes when it comes to magpies, butcherbirds and
kookaburras, i.e., when in flight the miners pursue the larger birds but
when they land the miners keep their distance and eventually lose
interest. I believe Doug Dow was the first to publish observation of this
behaviour in 1971 or there abouts. However, several weeks ago I watched 3
P. Bazas get harassed by miners persistently (in flight and while
perched). I find this type of behaviour of interest because of what it
tells us about the evolution of aggression in Noisy Miners.
I wonder if the P. Baza will eat nestlings of other birds?
Cheers, Jim
On Fri, 1 Aug 1997, Vella, Edwin wrote:
>
> Jim and to all birders
>
> The wheather was nice and warm and mainly sunny (probably about 25
> degrees temperature).
>
> As the Ironbarks where the Baza's were feeding were about 20 metres tall,
> I saw one of these birds (through my 7 x 35 binoculars) feeding on what
> looked like a tree frog as it pulled it to pieces.I'm not an expert on
> frogs but have heard tree frogs calling during winter.
>
> These birds were only harrassed by the Miners when flying from tree to
> tree but not when perched in the trees.However in February this year I
> saw one Baza flying over the Colo River (north of Wilberforce NSW) after
> hearing it calling (ee-chew, ee-chew...), and despite other birds being
> present in the vicinty (eg) Lewin's Honeyeater, there were no alarm calls
> given or harrassment by other birds.
>
> Edwin
>
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