birding-aus

Tameness of Australian Birds

To: Dean Cutten <>, Birding_Aus _Server <>
Subject: Tameness of Australian Birds
From: Mick Roderick <>
Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2005 13:08:04 +1100 (EST)
An unusual 'tame bird' I once encountered was about 7 years ago at Kynuna - in the heart of Matilda country in NW Qld, and sporting one of the driest, most barren landscapes I've seen. Here, an extremely voracious Brolga would literally snatch the food out of your hands as you took it to your mouth.
 
Quite novel, but a little disconcerting as it pretty much stood above me when I was seated. Anyone else had this experience with Brolga's?
 
Mick

Dean Cutten <> wrote:
AusBirders,

The recent thread on the tameness of rails has prompted me to report a
general observation on some Australian birds around the area I live in.
After having spent 14 years living in Alabama, USA returning in 2003 I have
noted
that many Australian birds are much quieter than those I observed in AL. I
am mainly refering to those birds approached in a backyard environment but
my observations are not confined to that area. It was rare to get close to
birds that frequented our backyard in AL (Red-breasted Nuthatch was
sometimes an exemption to this) whereas here in my current location a number
of species can be approached. The
ultimate here is that I have had 3 backyard species feed out of my hand,
namely, Silvereye, White-browed Scrubwren and Superb F-W with the Silvereye
commanding the most respect from the other 2 species. The Gray
Shrike-Thrush has taken food just inches from my hand. Several Honeyeater
species and Striated Thornbill will allow you to approach them quite closely
while they are feeding in the shrubs. I have had a Gray Fantail land on my
leg while sitting in a chair.

In the field I have noticed that frequenting the same areas regularly some
species don't fly off as quickly when walking up to them. One species in
particularly that does this is the Purple Swamphen. The Australian Magpie is
another species that quickly becomes less intimitated the more frequently
you walk past them.


Dean Cutten

Victor Harbor, SA

--------------------------------------------
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
--------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message:
'unsubscribe birding-aus' (no quotes, no Subject line)
to


Send instant messages to your online friends http://au.messenger.yahoo.com

Send instant messages to your online friends http://au.messenger.yahoo.com

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU