This is the first one I've ever seen. There were 5 other Choughs feeding on the ground around this tree.
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Wow that is cool, is that a mud nest Akasha? I have never seen one of those birds
Sunshine Coast Queensland
Hi Birdie.
Yes, it is a mud nest. They build it as a family group and only the main pair breed with the sub adults helping to raise the young. If two family groups meet they try to steal each others fledglings so they will have more helpers to raise next years babies. One of there defences is to bulge their eyes (which are bright red) and look really scary.
They are about the size of a Magpie.
HOw do they steal eachother's fledglings? You mean to raise them to increase their family size? thats incredible.
Sunshine Coast Queensland
David Attenborough did a great segment on them in his bird series showing two family groups fighting and trying to kidnap the each others young.
A couple of weeks ago I saw a huge fight between 2 chough families. The racket is incredible, a huge squawking but I think they use the fight as cover to lure a juvenile away. They invest a lot of energy in each baby so it is easier to steal them.
I haven't seen a nest yet, they look pretty solid.
Really interesting. Are you going to keep watch on the nest?
Hey birdgirl. The nest is only about 200m from the house so I'm going to keep watch and hopefully get some awesome photos.
Great, I'll look forward to seeing them, It's a new bird to me
These 3 were out collecting food for the babies today and one is still sitting on the nest.
Foraging under a stick:
Meal worms are on the menu:
And a big, juicy spider:
Nice Akasha!
Oxalis is not my friend
I went back this morning and actually got to see the babies! There are two of them.
In this photo you can see two little faces:
this is a great set akasha. I have never seen these birds before.
Here are some pics I took back in January when the babies left the nest.
The babies are the two walking side by side in the middle of the shot.
This is fascinating. I have never seen these birds before. I had to go to youtube and look these birds up. They seem to be so active and so many in one group, I would love to see these birds. Great photos, thanks for sharing :)
akssha, so many great photos. Aren't choughs wonderful birds.
they build such perfect nests, although I've never actually seen one.
Cheers, Owen.
I love these birds .We see them all the time when we camp on the Murray River in the Barmah Forest.They are great scavengers in a camp and after a week or so in summer will readily walk between us looking for brekky scraps around the campfire .
Before the cattle were removed from Barmah Forest ,I would watch them gathering cow dung for their nests ! Now I supose they are back to mud and the occasional bit of kangaroo poo .
My grandad always called them "Happy Families" and firmly believed you only ever saw groups of odd numbers --bit of old bush nonsense .Something about one watching while the others gathered food . If I counted 8 he'd say I missed the lookout bird !
HAHA! nice story huxter09. Can never convince our grandads otherwise can we. lol. I miss my grandad :(
I was born to live and I live to die.