No I had not seen it in previous years. But certainly on more than one day. This currawong behaviour continued until the adults stopped feeding the young altogether. I will watch closely if the local magpies breed here again next year.
From: Philip Veerman <>
Date: Tuesday, 22 May 2018 at 6:20 pm
To: John Harris <>, chatline <>
Subject: RE: [canberrabirds] Science Magazine: Birds from different species recognize each other and cooperate
Well that is a good story. You use the word “annual” as though this has happened before. Has this happened more than once, or even on more than one day? I have
not ever heard of this happening. I think the dy Currawong has got confused and got lucky. As for the adult magpies feeding it, they too have got confused and duped; yes “obsessed with its programmed brain to feed gaping mouths that squawk”.
Hard to see it as cooperation.
It is a bit like the lionesses that have been observed to adopt and feed baby gazelles / antelopes, presumably when their own young have been killed. It works until
they bring the babies back to the pride, on which the babies are immediately killed and eaten by the other lions.
Philip
From: John Harris [
Sent: Tuesday, 22 May, 2018 4:34 PM
To: chatline
Subject: FW: [canberrabirds] Science Magazine: Birds from different species recognize each other and cooperate
Yes well there’s co-operation as well as manipulation, skulduggery and everything else on the bird interaction spectrum! Thanks Janet for this interesting article. We should not be too surprised, however, at closely related species co-operating
in some way. This chatsite, for example, has had a lot lately about Eastern Rosellas and Crimson Rosellas interacting. It becomes more interesting with less closely related birds. This year magpies raised two chicks in the eucalypt in the reserve behind
my yard. When they left the nest the day was filled with their squawking demands for food. Then one day the busy parents seemed to be feeding three young which surprised me until I took a closer look and saw that the third bird being fed was a currawong. It
lined up beside the two magpie fledglings, opened its bill in the same wide gape, squawked and got fed.
Without further research, I am uncertain what is happening here in terms of bird behaviour. Is this co-operation? If so it is co-operation not between species but between genera (Strepera and Gymorhina). I am a bit of a cynic and think
not! That would require the magpies to want to feed the currawong or to gain some advantage from it. I think it is pure skulduggery - interaction, yes, but skulduggery! The currawong has learned something, an annual opportunity to be fed. The magpie, on the
other hand has learned nothing, obsessed with its programmed brain to feed gaping mouths that squawk!
Unless, of course, my learned bird behaviourists out there can tell me what the advantage is to the magpies….
From: Janet Russell <>
Date: Tuesday, 22 May 2018 at 8:44 am
To: chatline <>
Subject: [canberrabirds] Science Magazine: Birds from different species recognize each other and cooperate
Janet Russell
Birds from different species recognize each other and cooperate
Science Magazine
Credit: Allison Johnson Cooperation among different species of birds is common. Some birds build their nests near those of larger, more aggressive species to deter predators, and flocks of mixed sp..
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