birding-aus

Re: Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Question about Grey Butcherbirds

To:
Subject: Re: Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Question about Grey Butcherbirds
From: Scot Mcphee <>
Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:41:57 +1000

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.


===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com

To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to: 
===============================

<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