I've also witnessed it a number of times in North Lyneham (and I have never seen a raptor in the area).
John
From: Philip
Veerman [
Sent: Friday, 26 July 2013 3:02 PM
To: 'Jenny Smits'; 'COG List'
Subject: [canberrabirds] Serious Currawong Chorus in Deakin right now
Someone else wrote something similar about a week ago. They indulge in this caper regularly through the winter and presumably always have.
HANZAB talks about it a bit on Volume 7A pages 542 to 544. Without retyping bits, an old reference of 1942 suggests this as pair formation. Hard to know. I doubt it, although it may well have some role in helping individuals choose partners, like at a bachelor
and spinster ball, although it is just as likely to involve a lot more reasons than just that. These noisy conglomerations are also started by the sight of a raptor hunting (as in the case I observed two weeks ago when a sparrowhawk had caught a crested pigeon
in my neighbour's yard). My observation is that actual courtship by currawongs is quite separate from these events and involves just the pair.
-----Original Message-----
From: Jenny Smits
Sent: Friday, 26 July 2013 11:08 AM
To: 'COG List'
Subject: RE: [canberrabirds] Serious Currawong Chorus in Deakin right now
That’s Deakin not Deaking. Not sure where Deaking is.
From: Jenny
Smits
Sent: Friday, 26 July 2013 11:04 AM
To: COG List
Subject: [canberrabirds] Serious Currawong Chorus in Deaking right now
There has to be 50 or more Currawongs sitting in the trees and on the roof around my place of work, carrying on. Mating display possibly? Anyone’s thoughts?
What is interesting is how there are such ranges in the sound of the calls. Some beautiful, some higher, some lower, some squeaky, some quite pathetic to others.
