Hi Everyone,
An acquaintance of ours had two pet budgies in a normal wire cage in their garden, in south-eastern Melbourne, and saw the two birds happily in the cage one afternoon, before returning inside for the night. In the morning, they found one Budgie still alive in the cage, with the other budgies remains on the floor of the cage; it had been killed and mostly eaten. We assumed that it wasn’t the other Budgie who did this, and seeing as the cage probably could not have been accessed by a cat or fox, we thought that a butcherbird may have been the culprit. They are found in their garden, but it must have stuck its beak through the gaps in the cage in order to get it, yet this must have been a bit of an effort. Has this behaviour been observed before?
Regards, Matthew Roach.
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Our family kept cockatiels for a while, in a medium sized outdoor aviary. One bird lost a foot one night. We never worked out what did it. The same bird lost its OTHER foot about a year later, and the sight of the poor bird climbing around the inside of the aviary was just too pitiful and I had it euthanised (by a vet). We had a couple of currawongs around at the time – and I also saw a fox outside the aviary, but I favour the currawong as the culprit.
That marked the end of our cockatiel phase. We only went down that path because one turned up at our place and adopted us. I failed to find an owner in the region, but discovered that cockatiels are the Houdinis of the avian world. Try Googling “lost cockatiel” some time …
That’s enough from me – my fellow moderators will be telling me this isn’t about Australian wild birds!
Russell Woodford Geelong
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And a friend of mine who keeps finches assures me that Indian miners come and scare his finches. And when they panic and come too near the miners, they get their legs pulled off. He finds legless — after a manner of speaking — finches on the bottom of his aviary.
I would say ‘cheers’, but. . .
Gordon Cain Schofields NW Sydney
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Hi All, I do wildlife care and regularly have Butcherbirds and Sparrowhawks trying to get the birds in my aviaries.
Attaching Shade cloth to the outside of the cage, will help to stop the birds from being attacked.
Cheers
Carol
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Hi All, I do wildlife care and regularly have Butcherbirds and Sparrowhawks trying to get the birds in my aviaries.
Attaching Shade cloth to the outside of the cage, will help to stop the birds from being attacked.
Cheers
Carol
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Hi I think people should let their cats out as I have seen 2 instances of POs with half eaten cats in their claws in their day roost. Still very unbalanced in favour of the cats. Cheers Chris
On a similar predator/pet note, I was speaking to a neighbour 2 months ago, and she said that one evening whilst walking her dog at an off-leash park in Balgowlah (Sydney) a few days before, a Powerful Owl had made an attempt on it (she actually said something like “a very large owl with white and brown” which would have to be by assumption a PO), and apparently it had the Lucy the terrier pinned on the ground before the owner ran at it screaming causing it to fly off, leaving Lucy unharmed. I have also had a family friend tell me a similar story regarding their small dog being attacked by a Powerful Owl in their backyard, which is coincidentally only 100m from where my assigned Sydney Powerful Owl Project birds nest. I had always thought POs attacking pets was a myth, but maybe not…
Just another good reason to keep your cats inside at night
Cheers, Joshua Bergmark
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When I was a child we kept canaries in a large wire-fronted cage on a sunny back wall. We were always warned that a Grey Butcherbird might attack them – the method being to fly at or perch on the cage- the frightened inmates would attempt to escape by fluttering at the wire and would then be stabbed by the Butcherbird’s beak. Sometimes the Butcherbird would succeed in pulling the victim out through the wires, sometimes it couldn’t manage this. It was a good argument for fine-mesh cage wires. We never had any casualties.
One bird-keeping neighbour shot Butcherbirds with an air-gun, and encouraged his son to shoot at them with a shanghai. I would expect similar predatory behaviour from Currawongs, but in the 1940s and ’50s they were never seen in Melbourne suburbs. Butcherbirds were also accused of carrying off newly hatched chickens and ducklings.
Anthea Fleming
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When I was a child we kept canaries in a large wire-fronted cage on a sunny back wall. We were always warned that a Grey Butcherbird might attack them – the method being to fly at or perch on the cage- the frightened inmates would attempt to escape by fluttering at the wire and would then be stabbed by the Butcherbird’s beak. Sometimes the Butcherbird would succeed in pulling the victim out through the wires, sometimes it couldn’t manage this. It was a good argument for fine-mesh cage wires. We never had any casualties.
One bird-keeping neighbour shot Butcherbirds with an air-gun, and encouraged his son to shoot at them with a shanghai. I would expect similar predatory behaviour from Currawongs, but in the 1940s and ’50s they were never seen in Melbourne suburbs. Butcherbirds were also accused of carrying off newly hatched chickens and ducklings.
Anthea Fleming
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There was a discussion about this here a few years ago. Some people said that it was common in their area to put an extra layer of wire over the cage to prevent it.
Peter Shute
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I recall currawongs doing the same thing – loitering ominously near budgie cages on windowsills in inner Sydney. Cas
As a child growing up, we quite regularly lost budgies to Butcherbirds (mostly Pieds where we lived then). Sometimes, there would be virtually no remains of the budgie left in the cage.
John Tongue Ulverstone, Tas.
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Hi Matthew & All, I’ve also heard of Butcherbirds killing small aviary birds in the way you suggest. I’ve also known mice to eat remains of birds if the budgie had died, possibly from some another cause & they are able to get into some amazingly tight places. Just another line of thought Regards, Scott
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