Grey Butcherbird and Spotted Dove

["Philip Veerman" <>]

Maybe your comment about Grey Butcherbirds are not so common, is in response to mine. Dare I suggest that these words probably mean exactly what the person using them intends them to mean, which may have the same or little connection to what another person perceives these words to mean. So what you realised or not, are still likely both correct.

 

My point was that they not as suburban adapted (which you may choose to interpret as "common") in Canberra, as they are in many other cities. This is suggested by that they are generally easier to find here in woodland settings than in suburbs, unlike the situation of other cities. Sadly though other cities do not have the breadth of data that we have, from our GBS on which to demonstrate the point.

 

Philip

 

-----Original Message-----From: mariko buszynski [ Sent: Saturday, 12 October 2013 6:59 PM      To: canberrabirds
Subject: [canberrabirds] Grey Butcherbird and Spotted Dove

Hi everyone,

I did not realise that Grey Butcherbirds are not so common in Canberra.  We had a juvenile (?) bird in our garden in Hughes for two months, August and September.  He came everyday and gave us a private lesson on his songs and calls.  It was brown and not grey at all.  We had an adult grey butcherbird in our garden several times before.  Duncan identified it as a grey butcherbird for us.  The bird fed on leftover food for magpies.  He never came while magpies were there but had beaten magpie larks.  He left first week in October suddenly.  I wonder where he has gone.

Yesterday I saw two Spotted Doves for the first time in our garden hanging around with Rock Doves for a while.  Is it a bad news?