canberrabirds

standoff at the NBG

To: Philip Veerman <>
Subject: standoff at the NBG
From: John Brannan <>
Date: Wed, 28 Dec 2005 18:03:08 +1100
In a similar vein...
I wandered out into the garden yesterday wondering what had the local silvereyes so excited (there's a Collared Sparrowhawk cruises through occasionally) and discovered them aggressively chasing a Red Wattebird down the garden. The chase appeared to have started in one of our flowering callistemons. Defending a food source perhaps? Maybe it's just the hot weather :-).

John Brannan

I have seen a Red Wattlebird at ANBG fly about 40 metres to attack a group of choughs on the ground. Probably similar pointless aggression. Bird aggression is often directed at things that are a danger or things that are rare and obviously different from the usual. The latter doesn't explain Ian's obs. RW and Magpies both being common.
 
Philip 
----- Original Message -----
From:
To:
Sent: Wednesday, December 28, 2005 1:05 PM
Subject: [canberrabirds] standoff at the NBG

No, nothing to do with previous correspondence. These two spent some
time this morning adopting threatening postures at close range,
interrupted regularly when one of them flew at the other (both 'started
it' at different times); the resultant brawl always ended in another
standoff. I've not seen this before and it's hard to imagine what they
were intending to achieve.

cheers all

Ian

---
Ian Fraser, 
Environment Tours; Vertego Environmental Wordsmithing
GPO Box 3268, Canberra, ACT 2601
ph: 61 2 6249 1560  fax: 61 2 6247 3227
---



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