--- On Tue, 11/4/08, Graham Goodman <> wrote:
> Last week (30 October) Shirley and I saw four black-faced
> cuckoo shrikes in a tree near our home in Alice Springs.
> The birds were excited, making plenty of noise and moving
> about. They all appeared to be engaged in some
> kind of display behaviour which involved extending their
> necks and making a moderately harsh cawing noise. The
> striking feature of the behaviour that all four birds
> showed was the flapping of alternate wings about four
> times each, which we saw repeated a number of times.
Hi Graham,
Black faced Cuckoo-Shrikes normally flip their wings when they land. Other
birds have particular habits when they land such as Crested Pigeons flipping
their tails. But the behaviour you describe sounds a bit more complicated.
Maybe it's a courtship ritual? I saw a pair of Black Swans a week ago swimming
back and forth in a fixed pose, mirroring each other's motion. Luckily I even
got a clip of video. I'm pretty sure that this is a courtship ritual. Maybe
you had a glimpse of the secret life of Cuckoo-Shrikes? :)
Rob
===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
===============================
|
