Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Wildlife Wednesday - Pied Currawong

We have Pied Currawongs come visit and do their warble, which is different to the magpie warble but don't ask me to do it!

This one was having a bath in a little concrete dish that's been put into our front lawn under a tap - it came with the house but I keep it full of water.

I love watching the birds have their bath but I've not caught them on my camera yet. They're pretty skittish when bathing! And they always seem to bathe with a lookout - another bird who calls if there's danger, like me lifting my camera!

You can tell the Pied Currawong from other big black birds (like crows, raven, choughs, magpies) because they have a yellow eye and that white bottom (under the tail, where body and tail meet is always white) while the rest of them is black.

They eat a variety of foods including berries, lizards, insects and caterpillars. Their nest is a bowl of sticks, lined with grasses and other soft material. The material is gathered by both sexes, but the female builds the nest, which is placed in a high tree fork, up to 20 m above the ground. The female incubates the eggs, and the male feeds her. The male also supplies food to the female for the first week after the chicks hatch and she feeds the chicks. I sure hope he feeds her better than my hubby would me!

Pied Currawongs live all over Eastern Australia. So I doubt you would have seen one, Lily Malone :)

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