Hi all,
My wife has been observing a family of Grey Butcherbirds around our building for a few weeks (which has been great fun for the kids as they’re quite tame). We don’t know if it’s the same for all GB families, but the ones round ours have distinct male and female calls that make a moderately complex call and response with each doing a couple of different phrases in turn. The adults are more wary of us, but the chicks (one from this year and one form last) are very tame and the youngest one flies to our balcony when my wife goes out and greets her with a double bob of its head. This bird is starting to find its voice and does the male’s call, while the older chick does the female call. The youngest one is still quite scratchy and the notes are a bit off, but is improving. My wife’s a good mimic of Grey Butcherbirds and if she whistles the male call, the young female responds until she works out where it’s coming from. The young male will often sing with her for a few minutes in return for a small piece of cheese (they only get one small piece a day – no question of reliance as a) it’s only a small piece and b) even when cheese is offered, if an insect flies past, they’ll ditch the cheese in favour of the insect). Jo was taking some photos of the young male and when she moved the camera round to take portrait shots, he craned his neck so his head was on its side until she righted the camera again. They’re quite a set of characters. The big four field guides don’t make any mention of gender and calls and they’re not even that clear on differentiating gender: Simpson and Day and Pizzey and Knight mention the difference between males and females, but Morcombe and Slater indicate all adults look the same. Cheers,
Tony
The way of telling the gender of adult Grey Butcherbirds is by the amount of white in the face. In males, there is a well defined large white spot on the lores. In the female, a white line extends from a similar white loral spot backwards under the eye. I have a feeling that this distinction is enhanced with age. Having seen that, you will notice that the colour tones in the male are more intense; blacks are blacker, whites are whiter and the grey is cleaner. I cannot determine the sex of young birds (which are polymorphic), until they are over one year old. Neither I nor my wife can tell them apart by call. If you wish to feed them which is great fun, they like pet mince bought from a butchers. Each individual has its own perch from which to solicit food as they are fed only on demand. We have been doing this for over twenty years and they do not become dependant and may be absent for weeks at a time as they were this spring. That was because birds breeding in our garden especially Little Wattlebirds, gave them such a hard time! But they’re back now with a new youngster and one of last years still hanging on, now identifiable as a female. In previous years it has been a male that wouldn’t leave home.
Mike Carter 30 Canadian Bay Road Mount Eliza VIC 3930 Tel (03) 9787 7136
Tony, that’s very interesting to me. We have had semi-tame Grey Butcherbirds around our house for years, and the breeding pair is fairly tame, but the youngsters are always more flighty, because we seldom give them food. They use our house as a shelter in the incessant showers of the wet season, and seem to tolerate us fairly well as we have meals on the open verandah.
But in all those years, I have never differentiated between the calls by gender. I am familiar with a range of their calls. There is one call which always yields (for me) a snake or a possum: it’s the kerr-kerr call advising of danger.
As for separating gender by plumage, I have been wary of that, because I have noticed that the plumage colour changes considerably during the year, due to feather wear. I must pay closer attention. In fact I have always picked out our male by his individual plumage characteristic of a little more black at the collar. I very much doubt that it’s characteristic of all males.
But what I can’t figure out is how you can tell a young bird by gender, or have you seen them practising? Come to think of it, I can’t remember anymore how I came to work out which of our adults was which gender.
Cheers,
Jill
Jill Dening Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia
26° 51′ 41″S 152° 56′ 00″E
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