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Pied Butcherbird mimicing the call of a Blue-faced Honeyeater

To: "Birding-aus" <>
Subject: Pied Butcherbird mimicing the call of a Blue-faced Honeyeater
From: "Jon Wren" <>
Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 20:50:10 +1000
Gooday birding-aussers,
 
The Aus $ is high Coal Companies do not want to produce or load coal at a loss, so no trains running on the NCA Project.
Scored some time off and have been catching up with work in the yard. For most of the day I have been hearing and observing a juvenile Pied Butcherbird giving a  "queet" begging call (similar to a Blue-faced Honeyeater call) to an adult bird while it awaits another morsel of food.
I first noticed the young Pied Butcherbird giving the "queet" call on the front power pole while it awaited the adult to secure some food from an insulator on the cross member. Then on a couple of occasions around the back yard I heard the similar call and adults continual pursuit of more food.
 
Years ago we cared for a young Blue-faced Honeyeater and was surprised to learn of the group caring instinct of this species. We usually had the bird uncaged and would place it in various locations around the yard. Within the space of one day we were being visited by a group of Blue-faced Honeyeaters feeding the young bird and displaying no aggression towards the intruder. We allowed this to continue until the bird was strong enough and eventually released in the yard to join its mates.
 
I was just wondering if anyone has ever observed a feeding relationship between these two species, as the Pied Butcherbirds "queet" call was very similar to that of the BFHE?
 
Jon Wren
 
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