birding-aus

Intersting Wren behaviour

To: "david taylor" <>, "birding aus" <>
Subject: Intersting Wren behaviour
From: "Philip A. Veerman" <>
Date: Fri, 25 May 2001 11:58:14 +1000
Yes I have had exactly the same at home in Canberra, when I had them breeding in my garden. About a year ago there were many reports on B-A about exactly this. They are fighting with their reflections. It obviously doesn't take them long to find that their are two mirrors on a car. Whether they do that by random discovery or recognise that a car, like most biological objects, is bilaterally symetrical, so if there is another bird like themself on one side then there ought to be one on the opposite side too, now that is a fun question for an ethologist to look at.
-----Original Message-----
From: david taylor <>
To: <>
Date: Wednesday, 23 May 2001 23:43
Subject: [BIRDING-AUS] Intersting Wren behaviour

I was absolutely fascinated with the behaviour of a young male Superb Fairy
Wren at my home in suburban Brisbane last Saturday. As I was standing in the
driveway the bird flew down to my car, perched on the side passenger mirror
and proceded to "rotate'' around the back of it - almost like it was sliding
down the back! It then would come back to the top, pause a moment and do it
again. This was interesting enough, but  when it quickly and deliberately
moved across the car to the driver mirror and repeated the procedure about
three times I was amazed! Then it again went back to the other side and
repeated the exercise. I wondered whether there may be some insects on the
car, but as soon as the bird flew off I checked and there was no sign of
anything.
There seemed no clear reason why the bird would do this for about three
minutes. If I didnt know better the bird appeared to be just enjoying a
game!!?  Do birds have fun? Do birds know cars have mirrors on both sides?
This one certainly looked like it was something he had done before! These
gorgeous little birds are resident in my garden and give me much pleasure,
but this behaviour topped the lot!      Do birds have fun?

Good birding

David Taylor
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