Interesting Jenny. A lot of effort has been expended locally on scrubbie calls. Adam Leavesley did some work on it, also Dirk Platzen – gave a talk to COG (200 plus recorded call variations, I think he said), more currently Tonya Haff. All under the supervision of Rob Magrath, I believe. If there has been imitating of SFW sounds at the ANBG I am sure it would have been nailed somewhere along the line, not to mention the SFW army coming at it from the other direction.
From: Jenny Bounds [
Sent: Sunday, 12 February 2012 12:44 PM
To: canberrabirds
Subject: [canberrabirds] Scrubwrens copying Fairy-wrens
There is a small family group of White-browed Scrubwens and a similar group of Superb Fairy-wrens which visit my Weston garden regularly at the moment. Both have bred locally and have young birds with them. Sometimes both groups are moving through the garden together, and I have noticed the Scrub-wrens copying the very soft, low trilling call which the Fairy-wrens make to keep in touch. Ive not heard the scrubwrens use this call when they are not in company with the FWs.
