Yesterday afternoon I was engrossed with the antics of my resident female adult
Pied Butcherbird. I just happened to be in my front yard, with binoculars in
hand checking on my resident Tawnyfrogmouth pair when I happened to witness the
P/Butcherbird remove an egg from a Crested Pigeon's nest in a Lillypilly tree
whereby it broke upon hitting the ground from just over a meter in height.
The PB then dropped to the ground and devoured as much of the white and yolk as
was possible. I didn't need my bins to witness this as I was only about 3 or 4
meters from the bird and egg. Once she had eaten as much of the egg as was
possible she then attacked the shell and broke it into many pieces. After
eating two of the larger bits of shell, she then gathered the remaining shell
in her beak and flew up to her nest, placing the broken bits on the top edge of
her nest.
I gather her now 7 day old chick was not impressed as it did not 'squawk' for
food. The female then gathered up half the broken bits and flew onto my
neighbours roof and proceeded to smash these bits into smaller bits on the
tiled roof. She then ate them. I witnessed this with my bins at very close
range.
She then flew back to her nest in the Leichhardt Tree and devoured the
remaining shell, then cleaned her beak on a limb , then snuggled down into the
nest.
This took some 10 or 12 minutes to happen. I was gobsmacked.
Jude
Burpgengary
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