Hi Colin,
Yes this is quite typical of W-w Choughs. It is part of their complex social
signals. I don't know of other birds doing it, but no doubt there are others
somewhere. I can't think of any reason why it should be restricted to birds
with red eyes.
A funny although peripheral point to your message and I don't know either your
circumstances or local circumstances, so I'm not trying to be critical. Birdos
talk about our activity generating tourism $s but it sounds to me like you
contributed very little: in that way. "The other half wasn't happy about
spending a second night 'sleeping' in the car", Well I wouldn't like it either.
I think birdos are not very good at contributing finances towards generating
tourism. Like at the BA congress in Cairns in May last year. One of the
presentations at the congress was about our activity generating tourism $s for
local communities and even though several local providers had organised tours
that were well advertised, almost all were cancelled due to not enough interest
(including the one I booked for, which was a real disappointment for me).
Philip
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