Distinguishing between Pied currawongs: question

[Denise Kay <>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Denise Kay <>

Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Distinguishing between Pied currawongs: question

Date: 10 September 2019 at 7:07:16 am AEST

To: Con Boekel <>

It took residents 3 weeks to catch this one from Ainslie. After a month of basting the legs with oil to smother the mites . Edward the Currawong went back to Ainslie last Saturday . The legs are very thin and scared you can see how long the nails have grown under the infestation requiring clipping. A cranky and vicious bird drawing blood at any opportunity . I have no idea if the mites are painful .

Denise Kay

Flying Fox Coordinator

ACT Wildlife

On 9 Sep 2019, at 5:35 pm, Con Boekel <> wrote:

Rick

I am not sure in general but some of the birds in the ACT have a mite infestation on their feet which tends to be differently developed in different birds. There was one bird that used to visit one of the dams in Campbell Park regularly that could be identified by the distribution of the deformities on its feet. These might have hurt because the bird was in the habit of lifting one its legs and tucking it under the feathers.

regards

Con

On 9/9/2019 5:27 PM, Rick Kuhn wrote:

Pied currawongs or a Pied currawong visit one of our birdbaths one at a time, i.e. there is not a group hanging around, very often. Is there any way to easily distinguish Pied currawong individuals from each other?

Thanks

Rick