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Grey Butcherbirds - a few observations.

To: Tony Keene <>
Subject: Grey Butcherbirds - a few observations.
From: Jill Dening <>
Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2011 11:16:17 +1000
Tony, that's very interesting to me. We have had semi-tame Grey Butcherbirds around our house for years, and the breeding pair is fairly tame, but the youngsters are always more flighty, because we seldom give them food. They use our house as a shelter in the incessant showers of the wet season, and seem to tolerate us fairly well as we have meals on the open verandah.

But in all those years, I have never differentiated between the calls by gender. I am familiar with a range of their calls. There is one call which always yields (for me) a snake or a possum: it's the kerr-kerr call advising of danger.

As for separating gender by plumage, I have been wary of that, because I have noticed that the plumage colour changes considerably during the year, due to feather wear. I must pay closer attention. In fact I have always picked out our male by his individual plumage characteristic of a little more black at the collar. I very much doubt that it's characteristic of all males.

But what I can't figure out is how you can tell a young bird by gender, or have you seen them practising? Come to think of it, I can't remember anymore how I came to work out which of our adults was which gender.

Cheers,

Jill

Jill Dening
Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia

26° 51' 41"S  152° 56' 00"E

On 22/01/2011 8:11 AM, Tony Keene wrote:
Hi all,

  My wife has been observing a family of Grey Butcherbirds around our building 
for a few weeks (which has been great fun for the kids as they're quite tame). 
We don't know if it's the same for all GB families, but the ones round ours 
have distinct male and female calls that make a moderately complex call and 
response with each doing a couple of different phrases in turn. The adults are 
more wary of us, but the chicks (one from this year and one form last) are very 
tame and the youngest one flies to our balcony when my wife goes out and greets 
her with a double bob of its head. This bird is starting to find its voice and 
does the male's call, while the older chick does the female call. The youngest 
one is still quite scratchy and the notes are a bit off, but is improving. My 
wife's a good mimic of Grey Butcherbirds and if she whistles the male call, the 
young female responds until she works out where it's coming from. The young 
male will often sing with her for a few minute
s in
   return for a small piece of cheese (they only get one small piece a day - no 
question of reliance as a) it's only a small piece and b) even when cheese is 
offered, if an insect flies past, they'll ditch the cheese in favour of the 
insect). Jo was taking some photos of the young male and when she moved the 
camera round to take portrait shots, he craned his neck so his head was on its 
side until she righted the camera again. They're quite a set of characters.
  The big four field guides don't make any mention of gender and calls and 
they're not even that clear on differentiating gender: Simpson and Day and 
Pizzey and Knight mention the difference between males and females, but 
Morcombe and Slater indicate all adults look the same.
  Cheers,

  Tony




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