Local koel behaviour follows last year’s pattern, but more so. 5/6 years ago there was much prolonged and persistent koeling throughout the season from high stations, generally the same ones. Last season there was some early koeling but later there was little of that to be heard but instead intermittent wirra-wirraing throughout the day. The wirra-wirra is now the standard call, with some kek-keking, presumably from the female. My theory is that in general the koeling male seeks females that are not in the immediate vicinity at the time. The wirra-wirra is an excitement call when a female or females are present. This morning on Rocky Knob the wirras were loud and frequent with an occasional kek. There were 3 birds initially highish in the eucs. (Another male could be heard further away in the direction of Captain Cook.) The female was seen to fly off in that direction, leaving 2 males that engaged in a tense stand-off for more than an hour, sometimes within a metre of one another, and mainly in shrubbery within a metre or so of the ground. One bird, the more aggressive, was smaller, the other being quite sluggish and reluctant to move away. It is possible that the larger (older?) bird had moved into territory claimed by the smaller bird. During the confrontation there was not a single ‘koel’ but there was the occasional wirra, with some clucking and churring. In the below the aggressive (smaller) male is on the right and upper middle and on the left in the interaction shot. The photos were taken with a compact camera from a range of 3-8 metres.
