Hi Graeme,
Yes Whipbirds and others, the list appears to be increasing......
There may however not be predation involved in this odd case of the
Logrunners. It is, it seems, so out of character. It could have been just an
intent to remove the noisy competitor or disrupt the nesting. I don't know.
Just a suggestion and Barney's observation does not indicate anything more
than that. I wonder would Logrunners be capable of eating an at least half
grown nestling of a bird not much smaller than themself? Hard to imagine.
The attack reminds me of years ago when I had Star Finches breeding in an
aviary. I made the mistake of thinking I could put a pair of Crimson Finches
in with them, even though Crimson Finches are known to be aggressive. I felt
bad for pair of the Crimson Finch being stuck in a 1 metre long cage even
though the male Crimson Finch would sing all the time and was the only finch
I ever had who would sit on my hand. The female Crimson Finch first because
she was less aggressive than the male. The male would immediately chase her
around the cage whenever I removed the barrier. Within about five minutes of
being put in the aviary, the female Crimson Finch found the Star Finch's
nest and charged inside it and dragged the Star Finch out of the nest who
then escaped her hold and the female Crimson Finch chased her around the
aviary till I decided that was a bad experiment and I caught the Crimson
Finch who went back into the segregated cage.
Philip
-----Original Message-----
From: Birding-Aus On Behalf Of
Graeme Chapman
Sent: Wednesday, 3 January, 2018 9:12 AM
To:
Subject: Birds as predators
Following on the interesting observation of Logrunners, I'm sure there are
quite a few species not regarded as predators that welcome a bit of extra
protein when available.
A friend of mine regularly monitors the nests of Superb Fairy-wrens on his
property.
He has had to resort to building cages of chicken-wire around the nests to
protect them from the predations of Eastern Whipbirds.
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