There are some marked behavioural differences between male and female birds-
pied & grey- as well as magpies and other birds too. I wonder if others have
noticed this? Around people they know, the males are rather relaxed and very
forward, whereas the females are shier and get worked up easily over things.
This is more pronounced when they are immature. For example male grey
butcherbirds can be overly relaxed and forward, and they have a high
motality rate. The females tend be especially shy, angry, and stealthy.
We have certainly noticed this in our local pair of grey butcherbirds -
one's shy the other one's always looking for an opportunity when the BBQ
is fired up or other food is on the back deck. But I have no idea if
it's a male/female split - even though we naturally assigned the more
aggressive one as "him" and the other one "her". "He" will drop down
onto the deck and get down among your feet for a morsel, "she" tends to
hang around the edges and act flighty if you notice her. Also I suspect
- but I can never fully verify - that there is in fact more than two of
them (we never see more than two at once, I think though there's two
pairs that we might be seeing one pair thereof at any one time) ... it's
the same with the magpies too. Actually thinking about the magpies,
which we can definitely tell male from female, the male is also more
self-assured and 'aggressive'.
scot.
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