It is interesting to think about these ideas of Red Wattlebirds maybe bringing breeding earlier, to get a brood in before the Koels arrive. To me,
on face value that seems to suggest a very intelligent strategy (a bit excessive for a bird), so any change could be due to other things (as Michael suggests). And yet if viewed as an adaptive strategy and thus not intelligence but just random choosing of
a change of behaviour that happens to give an advantage, it seems to have been evolved incredibly rapidly. There are lots of cuckoo species around the world (and other brood parasites) and there are also a range of strategies used by the different host species.
And yet as Micheal writes, the word naive also fits, as the RW would appear to not have much of an anti Koel strategy (apart from nest defence). Maybe this is just a conundrum of word use within us trying to understand the brains of birds. I am not suggesting
I know.
Philip
From: Michael Lenz
Sent: Sunday, 9 August, 2026 4:32 PM
To: Philip Veerman <>
Cc: Terry Munro <>; Matthew Larkin <>; COG list <>
Subject: Re: [Canberrabirds] Fledgling Wattlebird
Early Red Wattlebird fledglings
This winter has been quite mild, and suburbia is in general a bit warmer than surrounding non-urban areas. Further, some suburban sites may provide good food sources: e.g. winter-flowering native plants + supplementary feeding by people.
In response to these factors birds may respond with early breeding.
Also by all accounts, the Red Wattlebird is still a rather naive hosts to the Koel as the high number of young Koels fledgling from Red Wattlebird nests attests (see Jack Hollands latest article on this subject: Canberra Bird Notes 51(1)
2026, p. 93-94).
Michael lenz
On Fri, 7 Aug 2026 at 18:27, Philip Veerman via Canberrabirds <> wrote:
Page 106 of The GBS Report provides the graph (and the text on page 69) of the breeding
timing of the Red Wattlebird (and other species), so addresses the timing issue. But this is only for the first 21 years of the GBS (1981 to 2002). There has been (little or) no attempt to keep the information consistent, available, compiled or up to date
since then.
So yes, it certainly is very early but not without precedent. The suggestion of this being
to beat the Koels has been put forward often over the last few years. And appears to be a nice idea to explain what could be happening. There can be lots of factors that can influence timing of breeding (or changes of timing). A comment a few days ago about
magpies jumped at the idea of climate change. Note that Koel had not yet been recorded breeding here within the period of The GBS Report (page 61), even though my text shows that I expected it would happen soon.
Philip
From: Canberrabirds
On Behalf Of Terry Munro via Canberrabirds
Sent: Friday, 7 August, 2026 5:21 PM
To: Matthew Larkin <>
Cc: COG list <>
Subject: Re: [Canberrabirds] Fledgling Wattlebird
Is this “early” fledging of a Wattlebird to beat the arrival of Koels & their effect on successful WB breeding
Terry Munro
On Fri, 7 Aug 2026 at 12:41 pm, Matthew Larkin via Canberrabirds <>
wrote:
One very recently fledged Red Wattlebird in Cook this morning, tracked down after hearing begging calls.
Matthew Larkin
Sent from my iPad
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