Hi Greg,
Yes, I agree that maturation of vegetation has probably influenced the
abundance of Grey Butcherbirds in urban areas, but I also suspect that people
feeding them in their gardens (and probably the provision of bird baths) have
helped too. I don't have any hard data to show this, and we don't feed wild
birds in our garden for ethical and ecological reasons. But I do remember an
incident in our garden a few years ago when my wife and I were having a morning
cup of tea - I dangled the tea bag in my mug, squeezed the tea bag, then placed
it on the table. A Grey Butcherbird instantly flew in from a nearby bush and
stole the tea bag from the table. My last memory of that tea bag was of it
being carried away by the butcherbird, the teabag label dangling underneath.
I'm not sure what happened next because the butcherbird flew some distance and
out of sight with its "item of prey". I've since learnt to properly dispose of
tea bags before taking my cup of tea into the garden. While this may be a
funny story, it did demonstrate that this particular butcherbird was used to
people and probably on the lookout for a food handout.
Stephen Ambrose
Ryde NSW
-----Original Message-----
From: Birding-Aus On Behalf Of
Greg and Val Clancy
Sent: Monday, 16 April 2018 9:24 AM
To: Martin Butterfield; martin cachard
Cc:
Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Range of Weebill
The maturation of vegetation is a sensible explanation as to why Grey
Butcherbirds have increased in some suburbs. On the North Coast Pied
Butcherbirds are abundant in open areas whereas Grey Butcherbirds are usually
in forests or woodlands with some incursions into open area (grasslands,
pastures etc.). It makes sense to me that the Martin's have clinched it.
Regards
Greg
Dr Greg. P. Clancy
Ecologist and Birding-wildlife Guide
Organiser, Gould League Bird Study Camp Club,
| PO Box 63 Coutts Crossing NSW 2460
| 02 6649 3153 | 0429 601 960
http://www.gregclancyecologistguide.com
http://gregswildliferamblings.blogspot.com.au
I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands on which I live
and work – the Gumbaynggirr, Yaegl and Bundjalung peoples – and to pay respect
to their elders both past and present
-----Original Message-----
From: Martin Butterfield
Sent: Monday, April 16, 2018 8:47 AM
To: martin cachard
Cc:
Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Range of Weebill
For the Canberra area there is nice data available from the COG Garden Bird
Survey (GBS) to show the time series of abundance of birds. For those not
familiar with the GBS - now in its 37th year - one of the key statistics is
Abundance (A) which is the average number of birds reported per active site
week. For Grey Butcherbird it shows a dramatic increase starting from 2005.
I had in the past attributed the increase to the 2003 fires in the Brindabellas
forcing the birds down to the urban area but in fact the increase appears to
start in 1999. Possibly the rate of increase is boosted by the fires (and a
few rural sites coming into the GBS from 2004 onwards).
What actually started the increase is a bit of a puzzle, but I suspect Martin
(excellent name, that) Cachard is close to the money in suggesting the
maturation of suburbs: in the case of Canberra this could be the suburbs in the
townships of Belconnen and Northern Tuggeranong developed in the 1970s and 80s.
I'll try and look at some detail on this later today.
Martin Butterfield
Martin Butterfield
http://franmart.blogspot.com.au/
On 16 April 2018 at 06:26, martin cachard <> wrote:
> 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: Re: [Birding-Aus] 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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