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Post by hornsbybird on May 1, 2014 4:25:16 GMT 10
Hi Guys, My name is Tahmid a fresh member from Sydneys Hornsby area (Wahroonga). Ever since we have moved to our home nearly 3 years ago we have have been enchanted by this singing bird. It has 3 different types of songs - one of them is so so very sweet. She has a very sweet voice. Although I have heard the 2 of its other songs elsewhere - infact quite commonly everywhere around Sydney, I have not heard that third special song anywhere else except around our neighborhood. I have been looking everywhere but have not been able to find an exact match with a name. So I am hereby attaching a pic and a sound clip - please excuse the quality of the clip as it was hurriedly taken by me with my mobile It almost looks like a magpie - infact I do think it most probably is a type of Lark / Magpie - similar colour of body, shape generally and beak colour with a black tip . but the differences I can pick are - certainly quite smaller than an average magpie and has a grey underbody coat rather than a black one. If you guys are able to shed some light I would be absolutely delighted. Thank You  Attachments:
Birdy1.wav (144.39 KB)
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Post by avinet on May 1, 2014 8:37:26 GMT 10
Hi Tahmid, welcome to the Forum. The bird is a Grey Butcherbird - there are I think 4 species of Butcherbird and they all have very melodic songs. Grey Butcherbirds can show a bit of variation - there are 4 different subspecies recognized. The chest can be almost white to a grey similar to the photo you posted. Also the little patch of white just behind the beak can be absent in some birds however the one in your photo is characteristic of the Sydney variety. They do have a lovely song - we have a pair of Pied Butcherbirds hang around our garden and whenever we are doing any gardening they are right up with us looking for any tasty grub that appears. While they have that beautiful song, that hook on the end of the beak is designed to hold onto food - including small birds. They can sometimes try to grab hold of caged birds kept outside and it is not unknown for them to get hold of the wing of a small bird such as budgie or canary and pull it off through the bars of a cage. cheers Mike www.warringah.nsw.gov.au/environment/species/grey-butcherbird-0 |
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Post by hornsbybird on May 1, 2014 23:44:07 GMT 10
Thank you very much Mike. That is indeed the bird. So now I am enlightened. It must a special variety of this Grey Butcher bird as I have most certainly never heard that particular long song anywhere else I have been to or lived at. They are quite loud and I would say the most "chattery" of all the birds we have in the neighbourhood, not necessarily always singing that special melody but quite often one of the other melodies which are simpler and shorter. They like to sing the special one early in the morning and close to dusk, however its not to say they occasionally randomly do not One of them has been visiting regions close to me at least once a day as I have been gardening in the last couple of days. I was wondering why and your suggestion makes perfect sense that they are looking for something in the form of food for them dug out. So after I saw her today close to me I intentionally went digging to get a couple of grubs for her but when I had done so she had gone by then  On another note, about 2-3 months ago we had a very disturbing big bird visiting us around the area. It was large almost having a falcon like shape, yellowish beak, grey coat. It was driving the neighbourhood crazy with its cries - very "complaining" sounding , sounded like a baby crying. It was driving away any bird it could see with its wings half stretched and chasing after them walking for eg on a branch etc. To my amazement I once observed something very weird - once it was crying in a complaining tone towards a magpie and I saw the magpie walk towards it with what looked like "food" like a lizard or something in its beak as if to offer the food to this big grey bird. The grey bird then snatched the lizard from its beak and drove it away aggressively. A bully of a bird it was! I tried to match it with a name and I got pretty well a very close match on the web - I thought it could be a Grey Goshawk from looks at the pics. However I did not find a video or sound clip that I could match. Oh well, I am glad its gone now. It kept on making a racket with any bird it could see as if it only wanted to stay around alone! I will keep on posting any other interesting birds I might come across. Big admirer of our nature and outdoors |
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