Hi Jude,
Julie, from the Blue Mountains also reported that her GBs did the same thing.
So whilst Michaels's experience and Hanzab records support this being post
breeding behavior, it looks like that is not the whole story. David Stuart
from Nature Sound has provided me with contact details for someone who did
their PhD on GBs and I will contact her with these observations as well as
providing her with a poor quality recording.
BTW, my bird is called Gene Kelly!
Regards
Judith
To: ;
Subject: "Rain Song" of Grey Butcherbird
From:
Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2011 03:17:41 -0500
Hi Judith
I too have noticed that our Pied Butcherbirds do exactly the same thing when it
rains, either heavy or light. They will come in under the patio and 'chatter'
away so many different sounds. They don't do this anywhere near as often when
it's not raining. So I'm with you ... they like Gene Kelly, are 'singing in
the rain'.
Jude
-----Original Message-----
From: Judith Hoyle <>
To: birding-aus <>
Sent: Sat, Dec 10, 2011 8:22 am
Subject: "Rain Song" of Grey Butcherbird
Hi All,
We are having lovely soft rain in SEQ at the moment. I note from a previous
thread started by Margaret Cameron way back in 2007 that the subsong and
mimicry
of Grey Butcherbirds has been discussed before. But in that thread there was no
inference between the weather and this behavior.
On both occasions we have had rain this week, one of our resident GBs has sat
on
top of the open window of our wardrobe just under the eaves and sung its
beautiful soft subsong, mimicking Pied Butcherbirds, the sound of the wingbeats
of Crested Pigeons, Magpies and Noisy Miners. It is a wonderful thing to hear
especially as I can stand about 2 foot from the bird without being detected. If
it does get disturbed, it flies a short distance away and then returns to its
dry perch under the eaves before starting to sing again.
This is not new behaviour because last year during our very wet 'Wet', it
(they?) did exactly the same thing. In short, if it is not raining we only ever
here the usual (yet no less fascinating) loud duettings between our birds. I
would be very interested to
know if there is a strong the correlation between rain and the subsong mimickry
in this species, or is it just our birds that like "Singing in the Rain"???
Looking forward to hearing your views and experiences.
Regards
Judith
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