Tameness of Australian Birds

[Mick Roderick <>]

An unusual 'tame bird' I once encountered was about 7 years ago at Kynuna - in the heart of Matilda country in NW Qld, and sporting one of the driest, most barren landscapes I've seen. Here, an extremely voracious Brolga would literally snatch the food out of your hands as you took it to your mouth.

 

Quite novel, but a little disconcerting as it pretty much stood above me when I was seated. Anyone else had this experience with Brolga's?

 

Mick

Dean Cutten <> wrote:

> AusBirders,
>
> The recent thread on the tameness of rails has prompted me to report a
> general observation on some Australian birds around the area I live in.
> After having spent 14 years living in Alabama, USA returning in 2003 I have
> noted
> that many Australian birds are much quieter than
>  those I observed in AL. I
> am mainly refering to those birds approached in a backyard environment but
> my observations are not confined to that area. It was rare to get close to
> birds that frequented our backyard in AL (Red-breasted Nuthatch was
> sometimes an exemption to this) whereas here in my current location a number
> of species can be approached. The
> ultimate here is that I have had 3 backyard species feed out of my hand,
> namely, Silvereye, White-browed Scrubwren and Superb F-W with the Silvereye
> commanding the most respect from the other 2 species. The Gray
> Shrike-Thrush has taken food just inches from my hand. Several Honeyeater
> species and Striated Thornbill will allow you to approach them quite closely
> while they are feeding in the shrubs. I have had a Gray Fantail land on my
> leg while sitting in a chair.
>
> In the field I have noticed that frequenting the same areas regularly some
> species don't fly off as quickly when walking up to
>  them. One species in
> particularly that does this is the Purple Swamphen. The Australian Magpie is
> another species that quickly becomes less intimitated the more frequently
> you walk past them.
>
>
> Dean Cutten
>
> Victor Harbor, SA
>
> --------------------------------------------
> Birding-Aus is on the Web at
> www.birding-aus.org
> birding-aus.blogspot.com
> --------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message:
> 'unsubscribe birding-aus' (no quotes, no Subject line)
> to

Send instant messages to your online friends http://au.messenger.yahoo.com

Send instant messages to your online friends http://au.messenger.yahoo.com