I think its wonderful to hear of anyone rescuing a baby bird, whether it be
a `personal favourite species' or not. Good on you both, Scott!
The carer will surely go mad though, with the constant drone of
`bick-bic-bick-BICK-bic- BEEEE'
God, What a punishment that will be. I can't get that sound out my head and
its been months since spring, lol. Still, they are very cute and friendly
animals, and interesting to know.
Peter, on the surface of things I agree that noisy minors can seem like
outright thugs, especially when the inexperienced juveniles get together
and form packs around this time of year. They're like ADHD kids, I swear.
But its just a phase and a good portion of the juveniles will die, as
they're not the sharpest tools in the shed and will hassle anything,
sometimes winding up as the meal.
Having said that, noisy minors are an extremely valuable asset to the local
bird population as a warning system & co-protectors of inter-species nesting
sites. They no doubt save more lives by alerting other birds of predators
and helping to fedn them off. In our area, every bird, whether small or
large, pay heed to their distinctive high-pitched warning call, and dives
for cover well in advance of an attack.
Also, regarding the assertion that noisy minors drive off all small birds in
the area, I'm inclined to put more weight on habitat destruction, by way of
explanation, than noisy minors. For example, in the small forest across
the road from us which is around 1-2 hectares in size, there is a
substantial population of noisy minors. However each day we visit the
forest to photograph a thriving population of very small birds living in the
forest including striated pardalotes, white throated honey-eaters, grey
fantails, mistletoes birds, rufous & golden whistlers, silver-eyes, leaden
flycatchers, and willy wagtails. We see each of these species on a daily
basis, as they seem to have one or two main feeding groups together.
I don't know a lot about fairy wren populations in brisbane, but we have
photographed large family groups located in the mangroves at coorparoo. They
seem to like the combination of tall grasses and near-by water. We
photographed 4 different family groups in succession, living in the tall
grasses along side the mangroves. .The family groups were each large, with
chicks, so I assume they were thriving there. Again, there were plenty of
noisy minors and little friar-birds in the area, but the habitat was right
for the wren's survival I guess.
Sorry this turned into a bit of an essay. I guess my point is that theres
more to Noisy minors than meets they eye. And if you cull them, they'll be
rapidly replaced by feral Indian Minors so its a lose- lose situation.
Cheers,
Belinda
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