Operation Magpie
No Comments »12th September, 2009; Category: Bird Behaviour, Birds in the News, Magpies and Currawongs
Australian Magpie
Most Australians would be able to identify an Australian Magpie.
They are one of the common birds found throughout Australia except for some extremely dry inland areas. They are quite at home in the school playground, our parks and especially our home gardens. This often brings them into conflict with humans, especially in the breeding season. Their aggressive tendencies to swoop and harass humans is well known.
A South Australian scientist, Professor Chris Daniels, in conjunction with ABC 891 Morning Radio, is conducting Operation Magpie in South Australia over the next few weeks. The project runs from 1st September to the 13th October 2009. It follows on from successful projects n previous years, Operation Bluetongue in 2007 and Operation Possum in 2008.
People throughout South Australia are asked to log on and register their interest online by filling in a survey sheet on the web page. This community based research project is an extremely valuable way of gathering more information and understanding of this popular and lovely species.
In addition to the survey sheets, the web page also includes five fact sheets about magpies as well as a classroom kit for teachers to use.
To participate go to the website here.
Australian Magpie
Magpie bathing antics
Yesterday I was reading while sitting in the sun on our back veranda. I love sunny autumn days in South Australia.
After a few minutes I was interrupted by a young Australian Magpie attempting to have a bath. The veranda is only a few months old and I still haven’t connected the down pipe from the roof to the rainwater tank. My wife has put a tub underneath the outlet to catch dew and rain so we can then use the water to keep the garden alive. With the recent rain this tub was full of water.
This young magpie tried every method he could think of to have a bath, but the water is about 30cm (12″) deep. He ended up vigorously swishing his head in the water which ended up splashing all over him. But that wasn’t enough.
He tried stepping down into the tub but ended up just flopping into deep water most ungracefully. Several attempts later he gave up and flew off to preen. It’s one of those amusing incidents where you wished you had a video camera in your hand at that very moment. Sorry – no video. You’ll just have to be content with a still photo instead.
Australian Magpie
Curry the Currawong
Grey Currawong
Every now and then a reader makes a comment or sends me an email with an amazing or amusing story about a relationship with a bird. Today Cath from the Adelaide Hills sent me the following story about her pet currawong.
Hello there,
I have a currawong here with me at Littlehampton in the Adelaide Hills. Curry came to me via a circuitous route – he was stuck upside down for some hours high in a tree in Crafers last September, rescued by a neighbour of a workmate and finally came to me as they didn’t know what to do. I had never raised a currawong before and I can say it has been a very rewarding experience. I adore the bird.
The bird hadn’t fledged, only had downy feathers and could not stand for about a week. This is back in September. It was just a huge beak surrounded by down.
Plenty of boiled egg, meal worms (with heads squashed), strawberries, blueberres and mulberries. Shards of apple each day. Small lump of cheese for calcium. And mice and rats. At least now Curry is big (voice has broken, eyes now yellow instead of gray-brown) I don’t have to scissor the rodents into pieces for him. He eats them whole. Fresh corn kernels are a favourite. Bits of steak rolled in Wombaroo insectivor mix, too. As a baby I fed him every two hours, now it’s 3 or 4 times a day.
The bird rides on my dog’s back, he just loves the dog. This happened by accident really as once the bird fledged he spent a couple of months free ranging in a big room in my house for part of the day and overnight – outside for most of each day in a big cage for sun and to acclimatise to sounds of the wild. The dog would go into the room and sleep on the couch. So I guess the bird knew very early the dog was no threat. They nestle up to each other and Curry pulls out dog fur and swallows it to use for digestion. They chuck up casts like owls do.
Curry presents me with the wiper blades of my car, steals my lighter, lies on its back at my feet, peeping and squeaking like a chicken, flies onto my shoulder, sits inside the ute on the dashboard if I leave the window down (beware leaving bills and paperwork on dash, they get stolen or shredded).
The bird has teamed up with a magpie of last spring so they are the same age. The magpie comes when I call “Curry chicken” at the top of my voice. They eat together but Curry is jealous and chases the magpie away eventually. He won’t let me carry around my galah, which I have had 4 years and has only 1 wing. Curry flies up and grabs the galah’s tail while she is perched on my shoulder, all the while screaming.
Curry also loves teasing the bantam chooks and has them completely bluffed. All in all, an amazing character and part of my extended animal-only family.
So what to do now? I am moving back east to NSW, to a farm in the middle of the state, and plan on taking the bird with me. It has been in the ute plenty of times and has travelled to the vet’s twice in a small cage and was not worried with his doggy mate sitting right there next to him.
This is how I plan to undertake the big trip east. I feel he will die here as he does not know he is a currawong. Although he responds to the calls of the odd currawong that passes through, I have caught him chasing another juvenile, and hiding from older birds.
The magpies, and there are dozens here, have accepted him finally and he and his magpie mate fly around together and play chasies a lot. But 3 or 4 times a day he wants food from me. He finds his own slaters and earwigs, I know that, and uses his beaks to fish out bugs in the trees overhanging the house. The only neighbours have cats and I fear he would hang around them if I left him here alone.
I’d like to know what you think. Should I transport the birds in the day or overnight? The trip will be a nightmare with the dog, bantams, galah and cockatiel all in the car too. They all know each other though, although I reckon Curry sees the cockatiel as lunch.
Since the bird came from Crafers, I guess he is a grey currawong? Are there any pied currawongs here in SA? It’s bit hard to tell from the photos on the web but he looks like the bird at the top of this site. He has a definite white patch under the tail, white tail tips and white wing tips on the longest wing feathers.
Regards,
Cath
That is an amazing story Cath. Thanks for sharing this with my readers.
You are correct in thinking it is a Grey Currawong. The Pied Currawong is only found in the extreme SE of South Australia. Animals can be quite resilient and I’m sure they will all cope with the journey. I’d be inclined to travel in the cooler hours of the day unless you have reliable airconditioning in your vehicle. All the best with the trip.
Depending on where you are going to live in NSW, you may be in an area that has both Pied and Grey Currawongs.
Pied Currawong
Pied Currawongs, Botanic Gardens, Canberra
Pied Currawong, Botanic Gardens, Canberra
Pied Currawongs are a common bird species along the east coast of Australia, from Cape York down to far south eastern South Australia. Their distribution generally follows the Great Dividing Range but they can be found several hundred kilometres inland where suitable habitat exists.
Their preferred habitats include rainforests, woodlands, forests, coastal scrubs, farmland, parks, gardens and picnic grounds. Where they come in frequent contact with people they can become quite tame. The individual shown in the photos above and below was seen during our recent visit to the Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra. I was able to approach to within several metres. It basically took no notice of me filming him as it went about feeding in the trees and bushes, and on the ground.
The far reaching call of the currawong is one of the iconic sounds of the Australian bush. It is also quite at home in suburban backyards – like my son’s garden in Artarmon, Sydney – and even right in the CBD of our biggest cities.
Pied Currawong, Botanic Gardens, Canberra
Australian Magpie, Botanic Gardens, Canberra
Australian Magpie, Botanic Gardens, Canberra
A few days ago I wrote about the small group of White-winged Choughs I watched in the Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra. While I was watching them digging around for food and them being most obliging to pose for my camera, the magpie in the photo above came swooping down from a nearby tree and clacked his beak. Not at me – but at the choughs. Seems that they have a little rivalry going on there. Perhaps the magpie was protecting his little patch of the gardens and didn’t want any other birds taking his food supply.
I’ve noticed a similar thing at home here in Murray Bridge, South Australia. Some of the magpies, especially the males, can be very aggressive towards other species. The will fly straight at them, almost hitting them with their wings and giving loud clacking beak noises.
Another thing IÂ noticed about the magpie shown in the photo is that it looks very much like the White-backed race of Australian Magpie. Most of New South Wales has the Black-backed race except the south coast from Bateman’s Bay on towards Victoria. The distribution of the White-backed Magpies might be even broader than this as my observations in this area are quite limited.
I’d be interested in readers’ comments.
Flowers in the Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra