interspecies interactions

One of the things that has amazed me, and amazed me over and over again, is the intelligence of Australian Magpies. They know how to talk to us, but do we know how to understand what they are saying? I have learned a few "phrases" in magpie language since meeting our Maggie Magpie, and I want to tell you one today that I learned from Maggie's wife Vicky.

I call this the J-phrase. Vicky has used it at least twice with Gitie and me. She might have used it even more than that, but we perhaps didn't notice and Vicky would probably have thought how dense these humans can be at times.

Here it is: Your magpie friend flies towards you, then flies at a very slow speed in a half-circle around you, about three metres away; then she stops: read more »

Since meeting Maggie Magpie and being introduced by him to magpie families and to many other species of birds, Gitie and I have become increasingly and profoundly impressed by their high intelligence and, yes, wisdom.

Maggie Magpie

I find it sad that scientists often automatically assume that only humans "think" or are "conscious". I have never quite worked out what they mean by that, because it doesn't take much looking to see intelligence in a great many other animals. Ask a cat owner!

The way contemporary animal behaviour scientists see the world is, in my opinion, profoundly unscientific. Their reasoning seems to go like this: animals do not think, they merely respond to instincts; they don't have feelings, they just react as their instinctive programming determines; humans, on the other hand, have a qualitatively different kind of intelligence and language and can construct uniquely 'human' realities like love, loyalty, and ethics, and can invent institutions like property ownership and inheritance. read more »

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 »

Wild Birds love communicating with each other, with birds from other species, with other animals and they absolutely love talking to humans.  They may fly off in a flurry at the very start because they may not be sure of your intentions, or they may befeeling particularly shy or self-conscious.  But once they realise that you are sincerely interested in them, they begin to respond and take an interest in you.

Once one bird gets the idea and starts  read more »

Our birds have rescued us from snakes on many occasions.  Magpies, butcherbirds (both the pied and grey species), noisy-miners and others have all played a part at one time or another in keeping us safe.  Most of the time we do not have a camera in hand to capture a photographic record of the event.  But on a few occasions we have been lucky enough to be able to do so.   read more »

Babblers although larger than noisy-miners are still small, gentle birds that can be easily preyed upon by hawks and other predators.  They stay in their family groups, constantly moving and flitting about so as to confuse any hungry eyes watching them with  the wrong intentions. They are generally very shy and quite nervous birds and don't project the immense self-confidence that we've seen in quails for instance.

They like hovering in muddy patches, or near gravel, stone, logs and barks looking for insects.

We noticed their friendship with the magpies soon after we became friends with Maggie and his sisters Cindy and Tammie. 

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Koels are shy and elusive birds.  They tend to hide behind the thick foliage of fruit trees, hoping no one notices them while they eat their fill. The slightest hint that they are being watched causes them to fly off and find a more remote spot. read more »

Here is Curly, the one-eyed currawong. Curly and the winter currawong mob (maybe a hundred birds) left for greener pastures about four weeks ago, but I've been looking for curly in case he decided to stay for the summer. read more »

Our queen Vicky magpie has been free of flu symptoms for a week now, so we are cautiously optimistic that she has beaten the illness that took our pied butcherbirds Gerry and Teddles. But the visits to the nest seem to have been a false alarm; no one has been sitting on any eggs this week as far as we can tell. So we took a walk up the road yesterday and asked our magpies what's up this year.

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As our beautiful queen magpie Vicky is not feeling well right now, I decided to go and visit her. I walked along the road and spotted her in a tree in our side paddock. I called out hello, and took one step off the road towards the fence. Suddenly, I was confronted by one of our noisy miner friends, screaming loudly at me and looking down:

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