A Koel after all?
December 10th 2008 01:53
As you know I have mis represented the dear Choughs that reside in our area, calling them Koels. The size difference between the two birds is something I obviously overlooked, as it is the main difference, the next in line being that choughs are social, Koels solitary and shy.
It all started here with the choughs - one with a leg deformity or injury came crying for food and there it started. Next Kman fed some kookaburras leftover sausage, now every afternoon we have two Burras, a very fat magpie and his three children, the flock of choughs numbering around eight and a vast host of little australian cuckoos, wattlebirds, pee wees willie wag tails and mynah birds. Over the last few weeks we have welcomed the currawong.
Shy and polite, possesing of lovely manners, one currawong would land on the edge of the trees. She seemed utterly disdainful of the feeding frenzy that ensued in our yard, and we obliged her by moving over and throwing a few scraps where she could reach them. She's gotten bolder and bolder and soon another appeared, and we believed them to be the same family.
On Friday while feeding, I noticed both currawongs go to different trees - different nests - and are greeted by loud cries. I assesed they must be seperate families, and from the sounds of the eager cries, very soon I would see currawong babies.
One thing was bugging me. One of the reasons I dentified our black birds as Koels was because of loud, screaming fluffy tawn babies, that called mournfully from the trees. Cuckoo children will do this when their foster parents can no longer look after them. The black birds are, without doubt, choughs, so what actually was that baby I saw crying in the trees this time last year? I decided to do some research on it.
Yesterday afternoon while filling up the waters, I saw a huge tawny bird fly through the trees. Coloured a bit like a kookaburra but much paler, it was HUGE, dwarfing all the other birds in the area, and sending them into frantic efforts to get away. The kookas themselves were decidedly absent, and all birds seemed desperate to get away from this...Thing....Even though it cried mournfully, a baby cry. "feed me, mommy, save me!"
I followed its frantic fly about the place, hurling the hose back to its place and bolting around to follow its movements. It finally landed in our front gum trees, behind where the afternoon feeding frenzy was now going strong again, and cried, and ruffled its wings like a baby. Still calling, feed me, feed me.
I was mystified. What is it? Its so BIG, bigger than any bird here - who is it calling to? Who are its parents? Where? Where?
My heart sunk as I realized the currawong was feeding it. Its a good 3 times the size of the poor gentle currawong, who is quite obviously run off its feet trying to care for it. It cried and moaned and chuckled, fluffing out its wings while the currawong collected more and more meat for it. My mind was racing. Big bird, really big. Slightly hooked beak. Tawny tail and wings, milky white chest. A cuckoo. Mums saying "Its an eagle, it has to be, but they dont put eggs in other birds nests!" I ignored this and kept thinking. I went for the binoculars and focused in on mystery bird baby. Glowing red eye.....Red eyed cuckoo......
A Koel?
That is what it has to be! I had dismissed the idea we even had Koels in the area after deciding our black birds were in fact choughs, but the appearance of this red eyed mammoth has changed my mind. There must be Koels here, somewhere close, and this is without doubt a Koel chick.
I could be wrong, but thats what Im deciding on. Obviously the parents really are shy, as I have never seen them, and the choughs, magpies and kookas arent dumb enough to be fooled, but the poor currawongs were. Im so crushingly disappionted - I fell head over heels for the darling currawongs, and couldnt wait for them to bring their children down for us to see. Now they have.....And I cant help a twist of hate at the Koel, doing this to the poor currawongs. And both are native birds, so nothing can be done. I can only hope now that the ultra sized babies have fledged the currawongs will try again and manage to have some of their own. Theres certainly a good food source.
The mammoth children were back again this morning - most surely they have outgrown the little currawong nest. Hopefully soon they will give up caring for the chicks that dont even belong to them and bring us some currawong babies to love.
I am now amazed that I mixed up choughs and Koels - the koel has a completely cold, vicious look to it, a calculating glare to its red eyes. The other birds are terrified of it. The choughs, though troublesome, scatter through the place like a bunch of clowns, causing drama but always settling down to eat and returning to their own territory. Not to mention their social group, their devotion to one another, is a lovely thing to behold, as they scurry over to any that have not eaten and offer their own food to make sure the babies are happy and full. The Koel on the other hand is cuckoo to the core - selfish, unfeeling, and savage, living alone and hidden in the shadows of the bush only breaking its cover to deviously slip its eggs into the nests of other birds.
It all started here with the choughs - one with a leg deformity or injury came crying for food and there it started. Next Kman fed some kookaburras leftover sausage, now every afternoon we have two Burras, a very fat magpie and his three children, the flock of choughs numbering around eight and a vast host of little australian cuckoos, wattlebirds, pee wees willie wag tails and mynah birds. Over the last few weeks we have welcomed the currawong.
Shy and polite, possesing of lovely manners, one currawong would land on the edge of the trees. She seemed utterly disdainful of the feeding frenzy that ensued in our yard, and we obliged her by moving over and throwing a few scraps where she could reach them. She's gotten bolder and bolder and soon another appeared, and we believed them to be the same family.
On Friday while feeding, I noticed both currawongs go to different trees - different nests - and are greeted by loud cries. I assesed they must be seperate families, and from the sounds of the eager cries, very soon I would see currawong babies.
One thing was bugging me. One of the reasons I dentified our black birds as Koels was because of loud, screaming fluffy tawn babies, that called mournfully from the trees. Cuckoo children will do this when their foster parents can no longer look after them. The black birds are, without doubt, choughs, so what actually was that baby I saw crying in the trees this time last year? I decided to do some research on it.
Yesterday afternoon while filling up the waters, I saw a huge tawny bird fly through the trees. Coloured a bit like a kookaburra but much paler, it was HUGE, dwarfing all the other birds in the area, and sending them into frantic efforts to get away. The kookas themselves were decidedly absent, and all birds seemed desperate to get away from this...Thing....Even though it cried mournfully, a baby cry. "feed me, mommy, save me!"
I followed its frantic fly about the place, hurling the hose back to its place and bolting around to follow its movements. It finally landed in our front gum trees, behind where the afternoon feeding frenzy was now going strong again, and cried, and ruffled its wings like a baby. Still calling, feed me, feed me.
I was mystified. What is it? Its so BIG, bigger than any bird here - who is it calling to? Who are its parents? Where? Where?
My heart sunk as I realized the currawong was feeding it. Its a good 3 times the size of the poor gentle currawong, who is quite obviously run off its feet trying to care for it. It cried and moaned and chuckled, fluffing out its wings while the currawong collected more and more meat for it. My mind was racing. Big bird, really big. Slightly hooked beak. Tawny tail and wings, milky white chest. A cuckoo. Mums saying "Its an eagle, it has to be, but they dont put eggs in other birds nests!" I ignored this and kept thinking. I went for the binoculars and focused in on mystery bird baby. Glowing red eye.....Red eyed cuckoo......
A Koel?
That is what it has to be! I had dismissed the idea we even had Koels in the area after deciding our black birds were in fact choughs, but the appearance of this red eyed mammoth has changed my mind. There must be Koels here, somewhere close, and this is without doubt a Koel chick.
I could be wrong, but thats what Im deciding on. Obviously the parents really are shy, as I have never seen them, and the choughs, magpies and kookas arent dumb enough to be fooled, but the poor currawongs were. Im so crushingly disappionted - I fell head over heels for the darling currawongs, and couldnt wait for them to bring their children down for us to see. Now they have.....And I cant help a twist of hate at the Koel, doing this to the poor currawongs. And both are native birds, so nothing can be done. I can only hope now that the ultra sized babies have fledged the currawongs will try again and manage to have some of their own. Theres certainly a good food source.
The mammoth children were back again this morning - most surely they have outgrown the little currawong nest. Hopefully soon they will give up caring for the chicks that dont even belong to them and bring us some currawong babies to love.
I am now amazed that I mixed up choughs and Koels - the koel has a completely cold, vicious look to it, a calculating glare to its red eyes. The other birds are terrified of it. The choughs, though troublesome, scatter through the place like a bunch of clowns, causing drama but always settling down to eat and returning to their own territory. Not to mention their social group, their devotion to one another, is a lovely thing to behold, as they scurry over to any that have not eaten and offer their own food to make sure the babies are happy and full. The Koel on the other hand is cuckoo to the core - selfish, unfeeling, and savage, living alone and hidden in the shadows of the bush only breaking its cover to deviously slip its eggs into the nests of other birds.
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