Pied Currawongs disappearing quickly from Tenterfield

There used to be a fair few (about 15 or so) Pied Currawongs here in Tenterfield that left town for a while then came back I think earlier this year. However, for about the last month or so, I have only heard and seen just a few individuals which I believe to be young ones that have not bred yet.

It is a crying shame to lose this species as they are such a lovely species even though they eat birds' eggs and young nestlings. Large numbers of this species used to inhabit Tenterfield as little as just 7 years ago. Now only one or two individuals remain. In time, perhaps as little as 6 months from now, this species will have left Tenterfield as well. It only takes 6 months for an entire species to disappear from this area if the conditions and their food source do not improve.

Pied Currawong Strepera graculina

Pied Currawong from the video below.

Pied Currawongs used to live in Tenterfield in large numbers until the drought came. Now only a small handful of them live here. At first, all Pied Currawongs disappeared from the South-west area of Tenterfield and the township as a whole but a small family group returned and appears to have stayed in the south-west corner of town. This individual (see photo) is one of those birds that has stayed.

I really don't know all that much about Pied Currawongs except that they eat meat and seem to love eating nuts but they don't like apples. Often they will swallow food whole but have been observed breaking food up into smaller pieces like the Australian Magpies do.

Pied Currawongs are the type of birds that will follow other birds around, especially Australian Magpies, if they know these other birds will be fed by humans. Pied Currawongs appear to always be hungry.

Pied Currawongs live in small to large family groups and are always seen together or in smaller family groups. This Pied Currawong seems to be a lone member, perhaps a young single male, of the bigger family group here in Tenterfield.


The Pied Currawong is the very first bird you see in this video. I was mostly focusing on the Satin Bowerbird as it is rare to get videos of them here in Tenterfield for such a long period of time. I was blessed with recording the Pied Currawong's call at the same time as recording the Satin Bowerbird. The Satin Bowerbird in this video may possibly be a juvenile male as when I took photos of the bird it's eye colouring was blue in several shots. Other birds in this video are adult and juvenile Australian Magpies and you hear a Torresian Crow calling right at the very end of this video.

Why is it every time I go outside birds want food? 25 June 2012

I just came back inside from out the front when all these birds showed up. They were expecting to get food from me but I never gave them any. They all eventually left after a few minutes. The bird species that showed up are Australian Magpies, Pied Currawongs, a Satin Bowerbird and Torresian Crows. This is typical of what birds do whenever I go out the front of my place. I barely can garden in peace or just sit out the front without birds wanting food from me. It is quite annoying most of the time.