bird animal interaction

Fiona loves Peewees and has a favourite Peewee family living in her yard (see slideshow below).  Also called mudlarks, the birds are friendly and get along well with her gorgeous hens (Lucy and Gertrude –Columbian Wyandottes, and Edna - silver-laced Wyandotte), but Fiona was yet to discover how amazing these birds can be. read more »

  By now you will have a few friends whom you recognise and call by name. The next stage is to get o know more about your birds. 

There are seven main points that you can follow to further develop your relationship with your new wild bird friends.  These are:

1. Make Time For Regular Interaction

2. Learn More About The Species

3. Gain Insight's Into Your Individual Bird Friends

4. Listen for Cues

5. Notice Changes In their Behaviour

6. Keep a Daily Journal

7. Look for Wider Patterns and Stories read more »

  Communicating successfully with someone from a different species, who is not only not dependent on you, but also flies off in a flash if they don't like the sound of your voice, brings its own suite of challenges. In this series, we look at each of the five major aspects of communicating with wild birds.  These involve making them familiar with our speech patterns, listening to learn, understanding our bird's response, building trust, and allowing the friendship to develop.  In the previous issue we covered the importance of making the wild birds feel comfortable in your presence, showing them that you care about their welfare and wish to make friends.  
 
In this article we look at the art of listening to the birds.  Listening is much more than just enjoying their songs.  True listening requires us to understand the information they are trying to convey in their language to their family, community, intruders and also their friends which now hopefully includes you. 

Click here for the rest of the article.

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by Shirley Oelman

I have magpies that visit every now and then and would like to talk about them. 

They first came calling regularly in late July 2009.

 
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A quick update on recent events. Firstly Curly the one-eyed currawong is still with us, and he seems to be doing quite nicely feeding himself despite his severe handicap. However, i think he is no longer associating with the other currawongs, but has attached hiimself to Vicky Magpie's family. Whether they approve or not I don't know, but he comes and goes when they come and go. He has become a bit more nervous in coming down to get food from us, though. I think his good eye has sunk a little into his head, which might be making it even harder for him to get a good view and feel safe from attack. read more »

The birds were making loud gargling like noises outside the front door!  That's always a sign of danger.
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Can you spot the two scaly-breasted lorikeets with their lispstick red beaks?  They've just taken off after a drink and a bath at the lilypot. read more »