A few weeks ago I mentioned a G Butcherbird caching a small skink.
I recalled mention in the McComas Taylor/COG atlas of absence of butcherbirds from the city being related to shortage of skinks. The passage is as follows:
<< Their absence from the city is surprising in view of their ubiquity in larger cities such as Sydney and Melbourne: their low numbers in Canberra have been linked to the city’s poor lizard fauna >>
The cited reference is a letter from Peter Roberts in CBN 14 n(2):
The point made is that G Butcherbirds occur where there are reasonable populations of skinks. My impression is that butcherbirds are now more widespread in suburban reserves, this having some support in the
reporting rate:
I shall leave it to others to say whether skink numbers have increased.
I suggest also that in recent years Noisy Miners have overcome their reservations about suburbia. In the last 2 years they have become dominant breeders in this neighbourhood, being particularly aggressive towards
currawongs and wing mirrors.
From: Wallaces
[
Sent: Friday, 23 June 2017 3:05 PM
To: Canberra birds
Subject: [canberrabirds] Skinks as a food resource in winter
Observations in the last couple of days of two bird species feeding on skinks made me wonder how important these lizards are as a winter food source. Both birds I observed appeared to be foraging by looking for movement of the skinks, which
implies that the skinks are moving around during winter. It may be just that recent days have been warm but the air temperature at the time of the observation in both cases was under 10 degrees.
I would be interested in any recent or past observations of skinks as a winter food source in the ACT.
Attached is a picture of the two species with the skinks.
Steve
