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Black butcherbird attacking sunbird nests

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Subject: Black butcherbird attacking sunbird nests
From: "inger vandyke" <>
Date: Thu, 11 May 2006 22:53:16 +0000
Hi All,

Just a quick query to mine your collective knowledge.

My parents in Cairns have had regularly nesting Sunbirds around their house.

My mother told me that they've been flying around again looking for a suitable nesting spot. My parents, over the years, have co-parented many sunbird chicks that have nested in their house by sheltering them from predators and keeping anything from disturbing them.

They have a problem now though. Black Butcherbirds are in their neighbourhood and they tend to raid the Sunbird nest for chicks. They are very cunning, fast and seem to appear out of nowhere. My mother now sits and paints outside to keep an eye on their Sunbird nest until the adults get their chicks out so she can scare the Butcherbirds away. This is a bit restricting though.

Do any of you have any suggestions to scare off butcherbirds but not sunbirds so my mother isn't housebound while they raise their chicks?

It's an interesting dilemma because you would think a picture of a raptor like bird on the window would also scare the sunbirds.

Any ideas/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Inger


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