It seems very plausible to me that Logrunners would take and eat a
scrubwren nestling; the noise the nestlings were making would very
likely have excited them. They are after all insectivores and no doubt
eat small skinks and frogs when available.
On 3/01/2018 10:51 AM, Philip Veerman wrote:
> Hi Graeme,
>
> Yes Whipbirds and others, the list appears to be increasing......
>
> There may however not be predation involved in this odd case of the
> Logrunners. It is, it seems, so out of character. It could have been just an
> intent to remove the noisy competitor or disrupt the nesting. I don't know.
> Just a suggestion and Barney's observation does not indicate anything more
> than that. I wonder would Logrunners be capable of eating an at least half
> grown nestling of a bird not much smaller than themself? Hard to imagine.
>
> The attack reminds me of years ago when I had Star Finches breeding in an
> aviary. I made the mistake of thinking I could put a pair of Crimson Finches
> in with them, even though Crimson Finches are known to be aggressive. I felt
> bad for pair of the Crimson Finch being stuck in a 1 metre long cage even
> though the male Crimson Finch would sing all the time and was the only finch
> I ever had who would sit on my hand. The female Crimson Finch first because
> she was less aggressive than the male. The male would immediately chase her
> around the cage whenever I removed the barrier. Within about five minutes of
> being put in the aviary, the female Crimson Finch found the Star Finch's
> nest and charged inside it and dragged the Star Finch out of the nest who
> then escaped her hold and the female Crimson Finch chased her around the
> aviary till I decided that was a bad experiment and I caught the Crimson
> Finch who went back into the segregated cage.
>
> Philip
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Birding-Aus On Behalf Of
> Graeme Chapman
> Sent: Wednesday, 3 January, 2018 9:12 AM
> To:
> Subject: [Birding-Aus] Birds as predators
>
> Following on the interesting observation of Logrunners, I'm sure there are
> quite a few species not regarded as predators that welcome a bit of extra
> protein when available.
>
> A friend of mine regularly monitors the nests of Superb Fairy-wrens on his
> property.
>
> He has had to resort to building cages of chicken-wire around the nests to
> protect them from the predations of Eastern Whipbirds.
>
>
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