perhaps the increase in butcherbirds around the suburbs of Melbourne in the
last few decades is because there is now more suitable habitat and available
food.
whenever I've visited Melb to see old friends & family, particularly around the
eastern burbs of Blackburn, Box Hill, the Waverley's, and the Bayside areas, I
have noticed some nice changes in the local native birdlife there...
because I've lived up here in gorgeous FNQ since 1996, and these Melb locales
were my old stomping grounds from when I was a boy and a MUCH younger man,
these changes are not only a pleasant surprise, but they are also rather
obvious to me as I'm not visiting them very often...
in general, there are a lot more smaller birds around, like Brown Thornbills,
White-browed Scrub-wrens, Superb Fairy-wrens etc, in people's residential
gardens in these burbs. I hear butcherbirds calling in the dawn chorus in
pretty much every suburb I overnight in when visiting, much more so than in the
70's to early 90's.
as suburbs like these develop and mature, so does the vegetation that is within
them as well - it seems to me that a nice mosaic of vegetation types has thus
been created, and with enough shrubbery and other cover to 'bring back' such
smaller songbirds as these, and of course, this supports more families of
butcherbirds.
the increasing controls on domestic cats has no doubt helped a great deal as
well.
and of course, this note of mine is a very general, and possibly a slightly
romanticised, view of things, but I reckon that this helps to explain the
butcherbirds increasing, especially in the greater eastern suburbs where I am
from, and have been visiting in the last 22 years too...
cheers for now,
martin cachard
writing to you now from a VERY NON-cyclone ravaged FNQ...
________________________________
From: Birding-Aus <> on behalf of Peter
Shute <>
Sent: Monday, 16 April 2018 5:07 AM
To: Mike Carter
Cc:
Subject: Range of Weebill
What's the reason for the increase in butcherbirds? People feeding them?
Peter Shute
Sent from my iPad
> On 15 Apr 2018, at 8:34 pm, Mike Carter <> wrote:
>
> Hi Patrick, Buff-rumped Thornbill is even more unlikely; that 2006
> publication that I mentioned lists that species as extinct on the Peninsula.
> Yellow-rumped Thornbill is a possibility but is distinctive so unlikely to be
> confused and has a patchy distribution. White-browed Scrubwren has a
> prominent white eye and would be plundered by Grey Butcherbirds which have
> become more common in built-up areas in the last three decades.
>
>
<HR>
<BR> Birding-Aus mailing list
<BR>
<BR> To change settings or unsubscribe visit:
<BR> http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
Birding-Aus Info
Page<http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org>
birding-aus.org
BIRDING-AUS is a discussion group for anyone with an interest in Australian
wild birds. Read updates and trip reports from many parts of Australia.
</HR>
<HR>
<BR> Birding-Aus mailing list
<BR>
<BR> To change settings or unsubscribe visit:
<BR> http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
</HR>
|
