'Dy or not dy?' that is the question.

[Martin Butterfield <>]

Con 

eBird uses two categories FL = "Recently Fledged Young" and FY ="Feeding Young".  I'd say all of your records would fit FL, but none fit FY, which is what I would map to the COG DY code.

Of course it would be drawing a very long bow in many cases to say the FL records gave any assurance to the birds having nested in the site of observation (or anywhere close thereto).  However a careful analyst may be able to use the FL data to show the sites which provide post-fledging shelter to the noisy little blighters.

Martin

Martin Butterfield

http://franmart.blogspot.com.au/

On 27 January 2015 at 16:48, Con Boekel <> wrote:

Going for a constitutional this afternoon in BMNR, I noticed that there was a young Noisy Friarbird begging noisily. The parent bird was busy feeding itself and on four or five occasions found some prey and ingested it. Each time the begging youngster approached the adult bird too closely and increased its begging investment (more and louder calls) the adult bird would engage in some sort of behaviour which clearly contained the message: 'Rack off'. So, not dy.

There was a similar scenario with two adult and one young Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo at JWNR two days ago. Again the adult bird, with a tasty morsel - freshly hewn from its former home inside an acacia branch - lunged at the young bird as if to say, 'Rack off!'. Not dy.

Then again, this afternoon, two Sacred Kingfisher youngsters in BMNR sat around begging, apparently waiting to be fed. The parent was about, did not catch anything with which to feed them and did not feed them. Not dy.

A group of three young Noisy Friarbirds along Upper David Street, the cultural boundary between Turner and O'Connor, were all begging lustily. But they were all also actively feeding on whatever is infesting the street eucs, said infestation having attracted significant numbers of the usuals. Not dy.

Also attracted to said infestation were two Red Wattlebirds. One of which was feeding and the other of which was begging. No transfer of food occurred. Not dy.

In a garden nearby, a young Magpie-lark was begging in the harsh and strangled tones with which young Magpie-larks may signal that their voices are breaking. Its companion was actively feeding itself but not the young bird. Not dy.

Four gardens along, a young Pied Currawong was begging (disconsolately, if one wanted to be anthropomorphic about it) and not being fed. Not dy.

If COG had a breeding category 'IPDY' (Immediate Post Dependent Young) or possibly even 'IWDY' (I Want to be a Dependent Young) I would have had many a record to add to the COG database, including a rare breeding record for the YTBC.

But alas, I came up with many an NDY instead.


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