G’day everyone, on my walk home from school today I found one of my Local magpies on a dead branch at the top of the tree. It was calling loudly, a call I haven’t heard before and shaking it’s wings, in fact, now I come to think of it, it was behaving (even sounding somewhat similar) like a Little Raven. I am only 13 and don’t have access to HANZAB so I was wondering if any of you guys could spread some light onto this?
Thanks! ~Nathan Ruser
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It was certainly an older bird, and a Male. We have a family breeding (they’re making the nest now) just down the road, and they’re the only magpies I see in the, well, valley I live in. So I can only assume that the bird that was calling was the Adult Male that we see here, maybe he was fending off an intruder 😉
On Thu, Sep 23, 2010 at 4:24 PM, Michael Tarburton < tarburton.m@optusnet.com.au> wrote:
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G’day Nathan & other bird observers
This looks like a real mixture of behaviour. Firstly the call. Could it have been the magpies threat call, which HANZAB describes as a croak (p 600)- (Ravens croak- though more the Australian than the Little Raven). This is often given with the wings outstretched, but is usually used towards con-specifics not humans. Maybe there was another magpie that it was directing the behaviour towards. Their alarm calls show quite a range, HANZAB describes some: as “trumpeting squawk”, harsh “ka”, and “broad-band alarm calls” (p 607).
Then there are their distress calls – also broad-band (meaning a wide range of frequencies (pitch) at the same time). Then there are appeasement calls which are similar to the distress calls but shorter and of lower pitch and usually associated with submissive postures . This last one could sound like raven calls and have the wing behaviour that you saw. What do you think.
Magpies have a wide variety of calls and associated behaviour, and they can mimic so maybe that was part of your observation. Do you know if the bird was young (more-likely then to be Appeasement calls) or older (more likely that it could be mimicking)
Hope this is of some help.
Cheers
Mike =================== Michael Tarburton tarburton.m@optusnet.com.au ===================
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