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Meeting the currawongs

07 January 2009 in Enmore, Photography by Stilgherrian | 9 comments

Photograph of juvenile currawong

A family of pied currawongs lives next door. Beautiful, smart birds. Recently we’ve been leaving food out for them, and they’re happy to steal a few bites while keeping a wary eye for the cats.

Today one of the parents brought two of the juveniles with it. While I didn’t get the camera in time to snap the family portrait, I did sneak this picture of one of the juveniles on the neighbour’s fence.

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  1. 'Pong’s avatar

    'Pong on 07 January 2009 at 2:58 pm

    Making friend with them is a bit harder than Australian magpies, I find.

    Reply

    1. Trekalong’s avatar

      Trekalong on 07 January 2009 at 5:18 pm

      They are terrific birds. They perch in the trees while I’m gardening and watch every move in case I put out something edible, although I don’t feed them as it might upset their diet. Or else wait for me to clean and refill the bird bath. They really love having a bath at 9:15am. In fact it comes back for a second, or is that its mate. They often have a juvenile. I think ours at Ryde are the bigger Black Currawongs with no while feathers. Once they teamed up with some Myners and chased our neighbours KARAT up the side path. I almost got knocked over by either the cat or the flock of low flying birds.

      Reply

  2. Stilgherrian’s avatar

    Stilgherrian on 07 January 2009 at 5:35 pm

    For those who care about such things, this phoo was taken with our Nikon D70 camera, Nikkor AF-G 70-300mm lens. The settings were 800ASA 300mm f5.6 1/320s, but the final picture was cropped.

    @’Pong: Magpies do seem to befriend humans more easily. Maybe it’s because they spend more time walking around on the ground and feel safer there. This is pure speculation.

    I was going to link to some of your photos of currawongs, but can’t find any online. I will instead link to the bird pics in your old photoblog.

    @Trekalong: We probably shouldn’t leave out crunchy cat food for the birds, but then again they themselves choose it — and currawongs are omnivores. I’ve been thinking of installing a bird bath, but the cats might find that a useful tool for their own nefarious bird-hunting activities.

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  3. Quatrefoil’s avatar

    Quatrefoil on 07 January 2009 at 11:18 pm

    My Mum’s got a great birdbath which foils the cat nicely — it’s a dish mounted on a single spike and is also wobbly — put a paw on the rim and it tips dousing the cat in water. Very effective, and very amusing, even if you like cats as much as I do.

    Reply

  4. Danu Poyner’s avatar

    Danu Poyner on 08 January 2009 at 12:33 am

    We have a family of currawongs at the back of our house (we live on a tree-lined golf course) and have been watching them for the last few months as they built a nest, sat on the eggs, got food for the babies and taught them to fly. They’re amazing, beautiful birds and very clever.

    Reply

  5. Zern’s avatar

    Zern on 08 January 2009 at 4:01 am

    Pied. Short crust, filo, or puff?

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  6. Zern’s avatar

    Zern on 08 January 2009 at 4:02 am

    But seriously, I do miss the family that used to live in the tree across from my balcony. They brought up multiple generations of big tough birds.

    Reply

  7. Stilgherrian’s avatar

    Stilgherrian on 08 January 2009 at 9:10 am

    It seems there is much love for the noble currawong, as there should be. We’ll be trying to get more photos of this family.

    Reply