Philip
You are probably correct as the adult has a white throat. Mark Clayton has been in contact with me and he will verify it.
I relied on a friend for the ID and only knew it was a butcherbird. I enjoy taking the photos.
Can you explain the Gang Gang’s behaviour?
Geoff
From: Philip Veerman [
Sent: Sunday, 8 November 2015 1:39 PM
To: 'Geoff' <>;
Subject: RE: [canberrabirds] Butcher Bird
Hi Geoff,
(As far as I know) We have never had a breeding record of Pied Butcherbird locally, they are rare individual visitors. These would be Grey Butcherbirds, which is
a fairly common resident and the picture (showing a whitish - not dark - throat) is sufficient to confirm it as a Grey Butcherbird. I can’t find pictures in a book of the young of these 2 species at such a young age.
Philip
I saw two Pied Butcher Bird chicks out of a nest yesterday. One was flying better than the other. I watched the nest being finished in early September.
Also on Friday an Olive-backed Oriole. Both were in the Mt Majura area.
There were Chuffs swimming in a muddy puddle on Friday morning between Majura and Ainslie. They had one young bird with them.
There were two young galahs peeking out of a nesting hole near Hackett on Friday morning.
Yesterday at the Botanic Gardens I saw a female Gang Gang rubbing her under body in mud and picking up mud in her beak. She then flew into a tree and preened.
Geoff McVeigh
