Hi Greg,
Thanks for forwarding on Stephen's comments.
We haven't seen any evidence of nesting. Stephen's book notes that
the breeding season is between July and December, however Simpson and
Day indicate that the breeding season is variable and can be between
April and December with "casual" breeding occuring in January to
March, so I suppose there is no reason to rule nesting out as a
causal factor. I believe that the birds are in first year plumage,
although that wouldn't necessarily rule out breeding .
As I mentioned in my email, there were three CSH's involved which
also seems to be at odds with the observation in Stephen's book that
the CSH "is a solitary, secretive, hawk". I suppose there is no real
contradiction between being solitary and a number of inidviduals
existing in a relatively small area - we often see a single CSH
chasing red wattle birds and common myna.
I had an opportunity to check the relevant volume of HANZAB and there
is actually mention of mutal aggression between Collared Sparrowhawks
and Pied Currawongs so this kind of behaviour isn't out of the norm.
I'd be curious to find out if it is normally linked with nesting or
occurs when the species occupy the same area.
I haven't seen the interaction of the CSH and PC previously - there
are no previous records of Pied Currawong in the area according to
the birddata website - but we have seen CSH's on a regular basis at
this site since the beginning of 2006, so I'm quite interested in
this behaviour.
To update the reported numbers of Pied Currawong in Royal Park,
Nicole mentioned that she saw 4 Pied Currawong in the grounds of the
Royal Melbourne Zoo (close to the main entrance and midway between
both previous sightings) on Saturday morning.
cheers
Paul
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