Birds (feathered ones)

[xkxlxm]

I guess that means to wring the neck? Sounds a bit too hands-on for a wimp like me. I have thought of a bucket of water but I guess that wouldn't be humane. I know that a car can be used (the fumes from one) but that is a bit of mucking around? The only thing I kill - so far - are mosquitos and mice/rats.

[Citroënbender]

If they’re on the ground, you can stun them with a well-aimed tennis ball first. That buys a few seconds to grab it and act. Don’t overthink it, you’re not walking in Pierrepont’s shoes.

[stock1991]

See the notch in a falcon beak, it matches the space in between neck vertebrae of a pigeon or a duck etc. with minimal effort "click" and it's instant. No blood spilled. So, no wringing necks just gentle pressure with the neck against an edge like a brick or the spine of a book. Pop them in a plastic bag in the freezer and wait till bin day put em out in the rubbish. I have heard they are plague in Melbourne

[xkxlxm]

Thanks to both of you. I must do something. Their chirping really irritates me.

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by stock1991

I have heard they are plague in Melbourne

I reckon they would be in plague in every capital city along with Starlings fortunately both we never see around here.

[stock1991]

Originally Posted by roKWiz

I reckon they would be in plague in every capital city along with Starlings fortunately both we never see around here.

So far so good they are not in Adelaide but sure we are infested with starlings ,blackbird and sparrows. I don't mind those species, they make good hawk food considering most of the native species of small birds have disappeared in large numbers

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by stock1991

So far so good they are not in Adelaide but sure we are infested with starlings ,blackbird and sparrows. I don't mind those species, they make good hawk food considering most of the native species of small birds have disappeared in large numbers

Good to know. Don't mind the productive Blackbirds, always get a laugh, watching their antics.

[xkxlxm]

There are some musk lorikeets around at the moment, feeding on flowering gums. They are smaller than rainbows and are mostly green with a couple of red patches on the head. (I had never heard of catbirds until a couple of mentions here, but there they are in my book.)

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by xkxlxm

There are some musk lorikeets around at the moment, feeding on flowering gums. They are smaller than rainbows and are mostly green with a couple of red patches on the head. (I had never heard of catbirds until a couple of mentions here, but there they are in my book.)

Very hard to determine the difference between a Catbird and Female Bowerbird sometimes. We get the little (all green) Lorikeets here and plenty of Wattlebirds atm
As we finally get some warmer weather, the Currawong's are starting to leave and head up the mountains for Summer.

[xkxlxm]

Young magpie in the backyard today. I put some worms down, right in front of it. No go. I put them on my hand and all it wanted to do was 'taste' one of my fingers.

[.:4:.]

When it was magpie breeding season there was/still is a big angry female who lives in a nearby tree and forages in my yard. She would stalk me if i went to check my letterbox or be outside in general. So one friday as a peace offering i flicked her a scrap of meat. Not enough for a meal but enough for her to be chill, untill the next friday when she bacame all stalky again. After that she was fine towards me. Apparently magpies are not just evil, but smart too. So the fridays after that if she was foraging in my yard and saw me she'd chortle at me. If i walked over and said do you want something, she'd follow me to my back step and wait. Id grab a scrap of meat from inside and come out and she'd run over to the spot i always put the scrap.
Now she has 2 juniors. Same friday takeaway for the mother bird, just now its a scrap and a half of meat as she feeds the little ones too.
Funny thing is, so the once a week bribe, the angry magpie and I get along fine. My mate who rents my grannyflat tries to scare them off so still occasionally gets swooped.

[xkxlxm]

I know someone who feeds mince meat to magpies. They will come and peck at the door to tell him they are outside. I have been there when that has happened. He also says that he never gets swooped when he is walking, because they recognise him.

[.:4:.]

Originally Posted by xkxlxm

I know someone who feeds mince meat to magpies. They will come and peck at the door to tell him they are outside. I have been there when that has happened. He also says that he never gets swooped when he is walking, because they recognise him.

Theres a difference between feeding as in creating dependence and just a scrap once a week. You deffinately dont want them to create a reliance on people for food. Thats why i just do a small bit once a week to the family of evil birds. Not enough to be a meal, but they leave me alone. They still forage around my yard daily. Mother bird wont ask, unless its a friday when she chortles to me.

[stock1991]

You can google the safest food to feed wild birds. an insectivore mix, can be sprinkled on meat from memory it's called wombaroo but check because I'm not up with that. I remember someone feeding wild kookas years ago.

Funny the baby magpie wouldn't take a worm when from the parent bird no doubt gobble it up. They do have good memories, that's why some suburbs they swoop bicycle riders other suburbs only swoop the postie, other places again swoop school kids in uniforms. They are particular with their grudges , whoever messed with them they seem to discriminate

Also I googled the mynahs in Melb, I see there are focus groups with mass trappings and they even supply traps too

[FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0]

Originally Posted by stock1991

Also I googled the mynahs in Melb, I see there are focus groups with mass trappings and they even supply traps too

I understand that most councils have myna traps available free of charge, so that may be an option for those interested, too.

[marty351]

Some council's have/had mynah eradication programs, try that avenue.

[.:4:.]

So stupidly enough, the mynor birds harass my local magpies. Makes no sense as why would an evil bird who can spark fear in a human be scared of a ****bag invasive little bird. They also harrass kookaburras, rainbow lorikeets and rosellas.
So back when i called wires when i found a tawnee frogmouth with a busted wing in my yard. The lovely volunteer who came to take it to be rehabilitated said with confidence, the tawny was probably sleeping in the tree, got woken to mynors having a go and fell off its perch.
So the indian mynor birds are invasive and pieces of crap. Whilst annoying sort of, id much rather be woken to kookaburras having a laugh the moment the sun comes up then not having them around, or rainbow lorikeets being noisy when the sun sets.

[FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0]

Originally Posted by .:4:.

So stupidly enough, the mynor birds harass my local magpies. Makes no sense as why would an evil bird who can spark fear in a human be scared of a ****bag invasive little bird. They also harrass kookaburras, rainbow lorikeets and rosellas.
So back when i called wires when i found a tawnee frogmouth with a busted wing in my yard. The lovely volunteer who came to take it to be rehabilitated said with confidence, the tawny was probably sleeping in the tree, got woken to mynors having a go and fell off its perch.
So the indian mynor birds are invasive and pieces of crap. Whilst annoying sort of, id much rather be woken to kookaburras having a laugh the moment the sun comes up then not having them around, or rainbow lorikeets being noisy when the sun sets.

Are you sure the rescue person meant Indian mynas and not noisy miners?

Problem is when people verbalise one or the other of those, they can be confused.

There's no doubt that the myna is an aggressive bird and can impact upon the native species, but the noisy miner is also a native and can be aggressive as well. From my observations, it is generally the Noisy Miner that harasses magpies and not the Indian myna.

We had an issue a few years back where the local noisy miner population had taken to swooping (in a very similar way to a magpie) employees as they walked on to site. There were calls for something to be done, but research indicated that they are a native and no action could be taken to remove them from site.

This is a comparison of the two:



Apologies if you knew all this, but just thought I'd clarify.

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0

Are you sure the rescue person meant Indian mynas and not noisy miners?

FWI. Noisy miners are related to the Bell miners, ie Bellbirds.

[stock1991]

One of my earliest memories is of the tv show, Bellbird.

[FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0]

Originally Posted by roKWiz

FWI. Noisy miners are related to the Bell miners, ie Bellbirds.

Yes, and both are members of the honeyeater family, which I didn't know until I researched my reply to .:4:.'s post.

The noisy miner is one of four species in the genus Manorina in the large family of honeyeaters known as Meliphagidae. The other three species of the genus Manorina are the black-eared miner (M. melanotis), the yellow-throated miner (M. flavigula), and the bell miner (M. melanophrys). One of the most obvious characteristics of the genus is a patch of bare yellow skin behind the eyes, which gives them an odd 'cross-eyed' look. Within the genus, the noisy, black-eared and yellow-throated miners form the subgenus Myzantha.[11] The noisy miner occasionally hybridises with the yellow-throated miner.[12] Molecular analysis has shown honeyeaters to be related to the Pardalotidae (pardalotes), Acanthizidae (Australian warblers, scrubwrens, thornbills, etc.), and the Maluridae (Australian fairy-wrens) in the large superfamily Meliphagoidea.

I've done my learning for today. Time to knock off

[.:4:.]

I was just going off what the bird lady wires sent out said re mynors.
One of the clients i used to work for, the warehouse bloke had a big cage and his pet macaw in the warehouse. Yes this bloke was licenced to have an exotic parrot. Awesome bird. On hot days he'd wheel the cage outside and mist the thing with the hose and she'd be loving it. Other times if working there the bloke would close the warehouse roller shutter and let you know he's letting her out for a fly, so dont leave the door open if you go outside.
Hadnt been to that place in a few weeks and the cage and bird were gone. So i asked if he took her home? He sighed and said no. Warehouse was broken into, only thing stolen was his macaw. He did get reunited with his beloved parrot after a couple of weeks, but still, it was a low act from whoever stole the bird.

[roKWiz]

Speaking of Maggies (or to them)

[xkxlxm]

Yesterday, across the road from where my mother lives, a small number of New Holland honey eaters; hard to tell how many; maybe 5, but could have been more.

[Tonz]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-...urne/101710478

[Citroënbender]

I saw that, too. Inner-city; it will behoove a perplexing resolution.

[xkxlxm]

My favourite bird story

The carport/garage here has a trellis side gate and it was probably the summer of 2011-2012 when I saw two pardalotes flying in and out of the garage, through the gate. One hot day when I had seen them enter the garage I went in there, quietly and carefully. One bird had gone up to the end of the garage where it was fairly dark and I couldn’t see it. The other was picking at the folds of an old duffle coat. I was wearing shorts and a T shirt and I was standing dead still, leaning with my left shoulder against the wall, adjacent to the trellis gate. I had my left and right hands above and below my eyes to cut out some of the sunlight coming in through the trellis so that I could see better in the dark parts of the garage. A sledge hammer was sitting on the concrete floor, the handle vertical. One of the pardalotes landed briefly on the end of the handle and then landed for a moment on my right elbow, which was sticking out.

About the same time I had cut down a quick-growing tree that was too close to the back of the house, but I hadn’t removed the stump. I had excavated around the stump to a depth of 30 cm or so but was putting off the hard work of getting the stump and roots out. It could have been May or June 2012 when I noticed a pardalote pecking at the side of the hole, which would have been about a metre in diameter. After the bird left I got a piece of small angle iron and used it to dig out a hole to a length of about 10 to 15 cm. The bird (or birds) came back another time and when it left I dug the hole out to perhaps 30 cm long. The birds came back, nested in there and finally left with the newborn in spring.

Someone else then wanted the stump removed and the hole filled in; I would have left it there for another year to see if they came back.

[xkxlxm]

https://www.smh.com.au/environment/c...125-1nz4a.html

This article in The Age (was also in SMH) in Nov 2011 made me a lot more aware of pardalotes. (I still have the cut out article.)

[.:4:.]

I no longer bribe the angry mother magpie on fridays, her juniors forage for themselves and her and i are cool. What is kinda funny, her male partner, so both he, her and the little ones forage in my yard. But the dude, if im sittin on my back deck and he gets insects or whatever, he will sit up on the railing about 3 feet away from me to show off his catch. Some form of bro code or something. So ill talk at him, good catch or whatever, he chows down and goes back about his business. I know magpies are reasonably smart. But i still reckon theyre evil birds.

[Late braker]

With magpies, a few days ago I was walking about 3 km from my house in the early morning. In a park where I often walk through there was a big commotion which really got my attention. About 6 or 7 magpies had one adult magpie pinned down and were obviously going to kill it. It was pretty confronting actually. I watched briefly for just a few seconds and I quickly realised that if I didn’t do something this bird would be killed. I felt so sorry for this bird- it was really a horrible situation. I marched over and shook my foot at them to scare them off. A few did but there were still a few more who wouldn’t stop. Did it again and there was one left who had this poor bird by the neck and it was pinned. I don’t think it was a mating thing- it was violent and this bird was genuinely terrified. I could sense it. So it freed itself and they flew off iinto the nearby trees. I was actually disturbed by what I had seen but I felt a sense of responsibility to at least try to help this bird. I have no way of knowing the reason why they were attacking this fellow magpie but it was violent and a gang bashing undoubtedly.

Then later in the day I’m sitting in my lounge room and a magpie comes and sits on the railing outside the open sliding door and just sits looking at me. Quite close. Not scared, not aggressive, not anything. Just placid and very close to where I was. Later I go downstairs and outside and it comes to where I am and sits on that railing too. Same bird?

Could it be that bird I “helped” earlier? Coincidence? Bearing in mind that the incident happened 3-4km away from my house in another suburb about 6 hours before…