Grey Shrike-thrush 1, spider 0

[Julian Robinson <>]

You might already know about the study that demonstrates that at 
least some birds deliberately feed their chicks spiders at particular 
stages of development to increase Taurine intake.  This is unrelated 
to the availability of spiders but directly related to the age of the 
chicks (5 days for the Blue Tits studied).  The theory is that 
Taurine improves/affects personality, risk taking, learning ability 
and stress resistance in birds as well as mammals.  Spiders are 
specially rich in Taurine.  I've many times seen birds feeding chicks 
on spiders which is why I first looked the matter up, it's quite interesting.
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/274/1625/2563.full

Julian

At 08:26 PM 21/12/2009, martin butterfield wrote:
> Another resident of Carwoola mentioned that he had a Grey 
> Shrike-thrush nesting in his garage.  After 25 minutes squatting 
> under a pile of hay-bales I captured an adult coming in to feed the 
> 2 chicks (one egg didn't hatch).  I was intrigued to see the food 
> was a large spider.
> Last year the birds nested on the verandah of the house with an 
> elegant stringybark nest fitted in to a smallish basket.
> This was part of a day un the locality which also included finding 
> Little Pied Cormorant nests in willows in the Molonglo and a Brown 
> Goshawk nest with a well developed chick sitting beside it.
> Martin
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