Hi David and Birding Aus Folk,
My guess is given it was a young bird it was indeed trying to grab
prey or something moving (perhaps the stick itself?) and snapped the
stick off in the process. After this it was probably then just
‘playing’ (practising) handling something in it’s talons and bringing
it to the bill to bite (as falcons do to kill prey). It is not
uncommon for many birds (any animal for that matter, including my
daughter!) to manipulate what could be seen as inappropriate objects
in this way. Most people think that this is practising for the real
thing rather than misdirected/maladaptive behaviour. I am assuming
though that by young bird you mean recently fledged cf. a bird that
is 1-2 years old.
Happy birding,
Paul
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr Paul G. McDonald
Visiting Fellow
Department of Zoology
La Trobe University
Bundoora, Victoria
Australia 3083
http://zooserv.zoo.latrobe.edu.au/Staff/mfc/PGM/Default.htm
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