My impression (not based on hard data) is that Grey Butcherbirds have
increased in abundance in the suburbs of Sydney too (north of the harbour,
at least). I don't have an obvious explanation for why this may be the
case.
Stephen Ambrose
Ryde, NSW
-----Original Message-----
From: Birding-Aus On Behalf Of
martin cachard
Sent: Monday, 16 April 2018 6:27 AM
To: Peter Shute; Mike Carter
Cc:
Subject: Range of Weebill
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.
>
>
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