Some years ago I was at Banyule Billabong (Heidelberg, Vic), back when
there was water in it, and a pair of Little Ravens were flying slowly
through the Red Gum tops above me, or moving about in the branches.
They were keeping up a conversation of contact calls between them, one
bird saying 'Ahk' and the other more like 'Uhk'. This went on for a
while and I threw in an 'Uhk' on my own account. I must have got it
just right because both Ravens reacted strongly, with much agitated
'Ahk, ahk, ahk!' and a positive chatter of 'Uhk,uhk, uhk,uhk!' while
looking down and eventually coming lower in the tree - I had repeated my
'Uhk' but as soon as they saw me they realised that they had been
fooled! They flew off with a couple of longer caws, while I laughed.
It's not often you get to play a trick on anything as alert as a Raven,
let alone two of them. The really odd thing is that I have never been
able to do it again.
Anthea Fleming
Subject: [Birding-Aus] Mimicry in Australian Raven
Hi all,
My friend & I were sitting in my backyard this afternoon when we heard a
very unusual thing.
There was a juvenile and an adult Australian Raven perched in a small
eucalypt the juv was making the standard semi-adult calls that young
ravens make, then all of a sudden I heard the word "hello" uttered out
of it.
My friend and myself sat quietly for a few minutes and surely enough,
after a few squawks another "hello" was heard.
This went on for a little while and about 4 "hello's" were heard until
the two birds flew off.
The juvenile raven and its parent have visited my yard nearly everyday
for over a month collecting food from the backlawn, however this is the
first I have heard one do this (ever).
I am aware the Corvids are intelligent, but I have never heard of a wild
corvid immitating human speech.
I plan to listen out to hear more and attempt to catch a video.
Regards,
Kurtis Lindsay
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