Dear John,
I've seen this too, at a picnic ground. A dozen White-winged Choughs were
hanging round for food (and incidentally climbing into people's unwatched
picnic boxes and baskets). Some were in attendance on the barbecues - old
birds with red eyes and dependent brown-eyed youngsters. Someone hurled a
chop=bone
into the group and a Kookaburra immediately dashed down to claim it. He was
instantly surrounded by old red-eyed Choughs which rushed up, standing tall
and towering over him. Not only did they rhythmically flash the white outer
wing panel and fluff themselves up, they also bulged their red eyes out to look
much larger, while uttering grating alarm calls! The effect with seven or
eight birds doing this, very close, was extremely menacing and the Kookaburra
flattened his feathers and looked everywhere for a Chough-free escape route
- none visible - he escaped by vertical take-off and vanished. The Choughs
got the chop-bone and started feeding the younger ones.
The late Ian Rowley in his book "Bird Life" (Collins Australain Naturalist
series)
called this activity the 'Plum Pudding Display'. I suppose because of the dense
way the birds pack together, almost in a heap.
Anthea Fleming
> I haven't seen this before despite seeing Choughs almost every day in our
> part of suburban Canberra...
>
> A small party of Choughs flew into a low tree and were immediately ambushed
> by Noisy Miners, Magpies and Currawongs. They were heavily outnumbered and
> quite stressed. Suddenly three of them lined up on a branch and fluffed
> their body feathers up, raising their wings to display their white wing
> patches. I happened to be in line of sight and it was an impressive
> transformation. The bird mobbing them were momentarily confused and the
> Choughs made their escape.
>
> John Leonard
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