canberrabirds

Black cockies and bowerbirds

To: "'Bird List'" <>
Subject: Black cockies and bowerbirds
From: "Geoffrey Dabb" <>
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 2009 08:40:03 +1000

I think we have been here before, but as I understand it:  males take 7 years to attain black plumage;  females have a black bill;  sub-adult males – 1st, grey/brown bill; 2nd/3rd virtually indistinguishable from Fs; from then on, when they are likely to be carrying sticks [remember?  -  ‘five, six, pick up sticks’],  palish or pale bill.

 

From: David Rosalky [
Sent: Monday, 31 August 2009 8:39 PM
To: Bird List
Subject: [canberrabirds] Black cockies and bowerbirds

 

As I was leaving home this morning for work, I was delighted to confront three Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos demolishing an Albizia tree in my front yard.  The tree has been damaged badly by YTBCs before.  They seem to find larvae in knots where small branches have formerly broken off.  Their activities have sometimes caused a whole branch to be severed.

 

Also Satin Bowerbirds.  Last week I noticed a blue SBB flying near the Italian Embassy in Grey St Deakin.  The Embassy is only about 300m from my place as the SBB flies.  I will have to search for a bower in the vicinity.  Over the weekend, I saw three (and possibly four) green birds in my back yard and the adjacent yard.  One was making that amazing growling or churring noise, and another was seemingly foraging for short sticks on the ground and attempting to break off thin sticks from a tree.  The bird on the ground also briefly put on a display, lowering its body, spreading its wing and shaking them.  These actions all suggest to me a group of immature male pretenders to the mature bird's throne, rather than females interested in the old boy himself.  I confess that I still can not distinguish immature males from females despite much gazing at the field guides.

 

David Rosalky

Deakin

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