Veronica,
Interesting idea. Magpies often do this sunning behaviour and strange posture.
I have not come across your suggestion before. For this to be correct, it would
need to be just females that do so and only happen at that time of year. I
don't think either situation fits. It is more likely related to feather
maintenance, dust bathing, maybe ejecting parasites like lice or ticks or just
feels good. They look like they enjoy it.
Sometime female birds get egg bound. Which basically means that they get into
serious trouble laying eggs. Actually I only know it from captive birds
(finches & parrots). The main treatment is to put the bird in a very warm box
"hospital cage". I had such a device years ago. So the suggestion of wanting to
warm up for egg laying is possibly relevant and correct in some situations (but
not likely the case in most).
Vocal mimicry by Australian Magpies is known. It isn't overly common. I saw an
extreme example of very developed vocal mimicry by one Australian Magpie (a
semi tame one) on internet a few months ago.
Philip
-----Original Message-----
From: Canberrabirds
On Behalf Of Alison Mackerras
Sent: Saturday, 18 December, 2021 1:55 PM
To:
Subject: [Canberrabirds] Fwd: Magpies info..
PLease reply directly to Veronica
-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: Magpies info..
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2021 09:17:59 +1100
From: Greg Roberts <>
To:
Hi, I often laugh at the magpies when they look twisted up in their sun
baking positions, as the weather warms up.. I also have a serious side
and wonder why ..they indeed do this. Is it..that they could possibly be
in this dire, dramatic.. heat exhaustion positions to capture the heat
for better egg production perhaps? I’ve often thought this.. but until
now, I put my thoughts down in writing. Please, if you know anything
about this, I’d LOVE to know! 😊
I LOVE magpies watching they’re antics and listening to they’re lovely
calls. Do you know..! I’ve just recently heard a magpie imitating a few
different bird calls.. something in which I have never heard from a
magpie before. Kind regards… Veronica.
Sent from my iPhone
--
--
This is the email announcement and discussion list of the Canberra
Ornithologists Group.
Emails posted to the list that exceed 2 MB (2,000 kB) in size, including
attachments, will be rejected.
All emails distributed via the list are archived at
http://bioacoustics.cse.unsw.edu.au/archives/html/canberrabirds. It is a
condition of list membership that you agree to your contributions being
archived.
Canberrabirds mailing list
https://lists.canberrabirds.org.au/mailman/listinfo/canberrabirds
|
