What was making these wolf whistle sounds if it wasn't Starlings?

Have you ever had one of those days when you think you've heard everything? Yesterday was one of those days for me. Around 1:25pm the local birds were chirping away when suddenly I heard 2 birds making wolf whistle calls. As I got my camera ready I made sure it was not people making this wolf whistle, and unless people climbed trees to whistle from, it was not people.

I distinctively heard 2 birds, one by the creek to the north of the Douglas Street bridge, the other in one of the gum trees in my neighbour, Carol's, garden. The audio to the video is really bad quality, and was much louder in real life - actually it was twice as loud as the audio in this video. The 2 birds were calling out to each other using this wolf whistle sound. The sounds stopped after about 45 seconds, and I never heard it again.

I done a bit of research on birds that can mimic other sounds and the Common Starling is at the top of the list for this article. It is the only species I know of that actually exists in Tenterfield from this list of mimicking birds that do wolf whistle sounds. The other species on my list, so far, are the Upland Sandpiper; Superb Lyrebird; Black-capped Chicadees; Whip-poor-wills; White-faced Whistling Ducks; Greenfinch; and the Tragopans. All the birds except for the Superb Lyrebird, the Greenfinch, and Starlings do not exist in Australia, not even as an introduced species as far as I know.

So, here lies the problem... let's say the wolf whistle was made by 2 Starlings. Why would they only make this sound for less than 50 seconds, use it for communication, and never repeat the sound for years on end? I've read that Starlings mimic sounds because they hear it a lot, and are influenced by that sound. If that is true, then shouldn't the Starlings make these sounds at more regular intervals than just once every few years? It doesn't make sense to me.

I hear Starlings almost every day around here, and they make the typical Starling noises, despite the differences in their songs. But never have I heard a Starling make such a dramatically different sound as this wolf whistle before. It just does not match their behaviour nor their vocalisation really.

I am actually ruling out that these birds were Starlings simply because it was a once off sound, and it was used for communication. The 2 birds were about 200-300 metres apart when calling to each other. In the video below, you can hear a distinctive loud wolf whistle call being made at 0:20 seconds but you can hear both birds prior to that calling out, albeit faintly.

It is definately not a Greenfinch, an Upland Sandpiper nor a Blackbird as the wolf whistle sound is different between these species.



For reference, I found this video of a blackbird that mimics different sounds in order to attract a mate. I am ruling out the Blackbird as the likely suspect, as the birds I heard were obviously a pair and communicating to each other.



I honestly believe that the wolf whistle sounds were not used to attract a mate, as the other bird was doing it as well. In conclusion, going on the fact that different bird species often temporarily stay in Tenterfield for as little as just overnight, it is more than probable that the birds in this video were just passing through. That being the case then these wolf whistling birds are not from the local area at all.

AFTER THOUGHT: There is one possibility that it could be an unheard of call from the Grey Shrike-thrush. I'm not ruling the Grey Shrike-thrush out just yet as a possible culprit as it sings a lot of different songs, moreso than another other bird in the area, next to the Eastern Rosella of course.

Little Corella Cacatua sanguinea



Little Corella in broad daylight

Little Corella alpha leader of group in less light

My daughter and I were visiting our neighbour when, whilst outside for a while, a flock of large, screeching, white birds with yellow wings flew overhead and began landing in the back wattle tree. I honestly thought they were Sulphur-crested Cockatoos! They looked and sounded the same as they flew overhead and whilst in the tree and were about the same size too.

Now the thing I have yet to see is an actual Sulphur-crested Cockatoo eat Wattle seed so I got out my camera and started filming them eating Wattle seed. I ended up by taking some photos of the birds too but they were taken just about when it was getting dark. It wasn't until I uploaded the videos and photos to my computer that I noticed they didn't have the large crest like a Sulphur-crested Cockatoo. Some had crestless heads (their crests were laying flat against their heads) and from what I could see of the birds' faces they had red between their eyes and their beak. After a bit of Google image searching I realized these birds were Little Corellas. Yah, another species to add to my Tenterfield bird list, I thought to myself!

Now, I've seen this same small flock of birds for a month or so. There is probably around 50 to 70 birds to the flock roughly. I actually thought the Sulphur-crested Cockatoos had thinned out, and just a small number of them remained, eating whatever seed was left. But obviously I was wrong, terribly wrong apparently. This actually means the really large flock of Sulphur-crested Cockatoos (over 200 individuals) have actually left Tenterfield not long after the Little Corellas moved in.

Here's the gist about Little Corellas, just on about 10 minutes of observation of them. They hang together in a flock. They absolutely love Wattle seeds. They allow you to get reasonably close to them, within about 20-30 feet of them, if you walk slowly. They spook easily. They panic and fly away if you or a large animal run passed or gets too close to them (walking slowly within 8-10 feet of them or running passed them at any distance within 20-50 feet of them). If eating from a tree, a few of the birds will fly back straight away into the wattle tree, the rest will fly into a nearby but distant tree (any tree species that has lots of branches so they can all land in the same tree) out of harms way. One of the birds in the wattle tree will call out to the others from the very top of the tree whilst keeping a close eye on what disturbed them. The rest of the flock then flies back into the wattle tree once there is nothing in their "comfort zone". About 90% of the birds squark/screech all the time during the time they are disturbed from when they are eating.

Little Corellas seem to be more accepting of humans and domesticated pets than Sulphur-crested Cockatoos. They seem to respond to humans in a social way if spoken to or approached in a gentle manner. They are curious birds but weary at the same time.

There appears to be one alpha bird of the flock. They feed together as a group and get spooked as a group. The alpha bird tells the others when its safe to come back and resume feeding. The alpha bird stands it's ground, almost as if it is claim the tree as it's own on behalf of the entire flock when they are nearby in another tree. There does not seem to be individuality (or each bird for itself) like with Torresian Crows when they are feeding.

All that I know for certain that they eat thus far is Wattle seeds. They are the only other bird species I have seen eat Wattle seeds here in Tenterfield. The other species to eat Wattle seed is the Australian King Parrot. I'll need to study the Little Corellas eating habits in the next few days to see what else they eat.

Could this be the Grey Shrike-thrush?

I wanted to add this video as a post rather than as a video itself simply because I am uncertain if these birds are Grey Shrike-thrushes. I have not heard the Grey Shrike-thrush for some time now, and in fact I stopped listening for the bird altogether. When I was at my neighbour Carol's place yesterday, I began hearing a bird calling that I've heard in the past but not this year. Then a second bird begins making the same calls a lot closer to me.

I managed to get a shot of the closest bird to me to sort of identify the bird species but I can't tell if it actually is a Grey Shrike-thrush or not. The setting sun turned the bird brown, and the shadows from the tree gave the bird a black head at times. But this does not look like the Grey Shrike-thrush that was visiting Carol's garden but the bird's behaviour is similiar to the bird. It is very confusing.

If this bird is a Grey Shrike-thrush, then I am happy to say that this call is another call that that species makes. I did not hear the typical Grey Shrike-thrush sounds that they make either before or after this video was recorded.

I can't see the honeyeaters for the plum tree

Spring is the time of year when two things happen: the majority of birds start breeding in Tenterfield, and decidious trees begin to regrow their leaves and new branches. Out the front of my bedroom window is a decidious plum tree that is really thick with leaves and branches and despite it being turned into a bush a few years ago it is thickening up so much now that I can barely see my Grevilleas anymore.

Today some honeyeaters visited my Grevillea and all I saw was a flash of feathers as the bird flew around. The honeyeater in question that I recorded in the video below is either the Eastern Spinebill, White-plumed Honeyeater or the Yellow-faced Honeyeater. I simply can't make out which species it is, not visually anyway. I haven't tried to audio identify this bird yet.

Getting a good video of any of the three honeyeater species that visits my Grevilleas is now going to be extremely difficult through this dense foliage. It was bad enough that I could only record these birds from inside my bedroom as they flew away every time I went outside. Either I do the best I can with what I can see or wait until the plum tree has grown larger branches so the Grevilleas are a lot more visible. But the problem is when this plum tree grows it gets thicker and there is not a lot of light that penetrates the ground underneath it.

I would not get rid of this tree for all the Tea in China. It is the best shade tree I have ever found in Tenterfield. In Summer, when the rest of my home is scorching hot my bedroom is nice and cool. When the tree is in full leaf the tree's shade is at least 10 degrees cooler than when you're in the sun. There are actually 2 of these plum trees out the front and both are trying to reestablish themselves to look like trees again.

UPDATE: Australian Magpies and their female chick

It's feathers are a lot darker than previous chicks that
have been born in the past. It's colouring is that of a 12
month old juvenile actually. ADD ONE HOUR TO THE
TIME ON THIS IMAGE - my camera's time setting is
behind by one hour.

Today I finally saw the Australian Magpie chick for the very first time. At first I was confused about the chick being a chick as it's feather colouring was too dark to be straight out of the nest. It also seems to be a little too big to be a chick just out of the nest. It is the same size as a one year old juvenile Australian Magpie. It wasn't until I took this photo (see left image) that I realised it was their new chick. The chick has been out of the nest for about a week, I'm guessing, two weeks at the most but today was my very first sighting of her.

All the Magpies' past offspring have fully grown tail feathers, whereas this chick has short tail feathers, like that of a Satin Bowerbird. When this chick grows and matures, it is going to be huge. It will easily be bigger than it's parents, in size. Whether it will grow a longer tail or not only time will answer that question. I'm not sure if this is normal or not for a Magpie chick to have short tail feathers at this stage of it's development but it seems to be able to fly okay not that I have seen her fly yet.

I was a little bit concerned when I saw this young bird, as the parents were not exactly feeding it like they have done with their previous offspring. I also believe it is a girl as the adult male was not aggressive toward the chick, even though the chick itself acted in a somewhat submissive manner (she didn't like what was happening to her older brother) on a few ocassions when it was on my front lawn when it's dad was very close by. The dad was being aggressive toward his 12 month old son that was eating food nearby.

Another indication that tells me this is a female is when the chick got frightened it ran straight toward it's mum rather than it's dad. Going on my past experiences in identifying the genders of juvenile Australian Magpies, this chick fascinates me. Not only does it act like a female but also maybe is already self-sufficient when it comes to finding food. It is very quick at adapting to my presence - on the second sighting of me it almost came straight up to me.

I now understand why I have not seen the male Magpie taking interest in feeding the chick. Male Magpies feed male chicks, and female Magpies feed female chicks - only if one chick survives and fledges. But both parents will feed the chick at some point, especially if it is a male and is quite demanding on the parents for food. This chick barely squarked at all for food when it was on my front lawn and it spent all of it's time feeding itself. That doesn't usually happen for months afterward, as it takes about 6 months before the chicks are independant enough to constantly feed themselves. If it is true that this chick is less than 2 months old, then it is very well developed for it's age. I would even say it is maturing at an advanced rate for it's age.

I've noticed, over the years that Magpie chicks, when by themselves, run to Pied Currawong females/males for comfort and protection when spooked and when on the ground. This only happens during the first year of an Australian Magpie's life. Australian Magpies and Pied Currawongs get on really well together here in Tenterfield. The only time a Magpie will attack a Currawong is when a male is experiencing increased hormone levels due to breeding and defending it's male chicks. This can occur for more than 12 months. Pied Currawongs never attack Australian Magpies.

One thing caught my attention with this female Australian Magpie chick.. she attacked a full grown Torresian Crow at one point, and the crow did not bother her or try to take her food after that. Normally the crows will attack the Magpie adults, juveniles and chicks and win but this female Magpie chick isn't putting up with the crows' behaviour at all. I have witnessed my very first aggressive female Magpie, and this girl will not only survive but become a top predator when she grows up. I will only have 2 years to study her before she begins to find a mate of her own and leaves home, assuming her sexual maturity will be the same as all other Australian Magpies ever born in Tenterfield and elsewhere in Australia. She will be one very interesting bird to study, just to see how she grows and what sort of things she does, if different to other Magpie chicks that are her same age.

UPDATE ON THIS POST (6 November 2012) - Turns out that this bird is the one year old female. She was obviously attacked by another bird and as a result had her tail feathers pulled out. At a guess, going on her reaction to a Torresian Crow that she attacked, I'd say her attacker was a Torresian Crow. Female Magpies don't attack other birds, especially crows. But crows attack Magpies.

UPDATE: Red Wattlebird parents and chick

The new fledgling at Carol's place. My camera's date
setting is actually an hour behind true time. I will change
the time setting once my camera is fully charged.

There is still no visual sighting of any of their chicks yet but both parents have been sighted at my place wanting food from me. This occurs about twice a day now, where food will be taken back to the chick/s. I believe there may be only one chick, going on the amount of food taken.

I really need to study any past notes I wrote down on this breeding pair. So far all is going well and the fledgling is still alive and seems to doing well. It is still being fed by it's parents anyway.

The parents prefer to take bread back to the chick as it is soft. No meat or insects, that I am aware of, has been taken back to the chick yet.

I wrote the above before I had a quick visit to Carol's place and indeed I was right all along about how many chicks they had. Not long after I got there I saw one of the parents with a chick. I managed to take a few photos of the chick before my camera died on me. I only have blurry photos of the chick at the moment.

Tomorrow I'll take some more photos. I'm hoping to get an audio recording of the chick's voice in the next few days, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hope the camera will pick it's voice up. It's voice is a soft, low pitch sound and a very quiet noise. The chick is 3/4 the size of it's parents and is still learning how to fly. At one point when my neighbour's dog raced passed the parent and chick, the chick flew off straight into the upright pole of the clothes line. It didn't seem to hurt itself and was flying again straight away. It's first lesson - watch where you're flying!

In flight it's wings cutting through the air is making a heavier sound than that of the adult birds as it seems to be struggling to keep up with it's parent/s in flight. And the chick has this cute little chirp/squark to it. It has such a tiny little voice at the moment. The chick is so adorable.

UPDATE: What is the Grey Shrike-thrush thinking?

This male Grey Shrike-thrush, if it is a male, does not seem to know what it is doing. The new (number two) mate he found has also left, obviously did not like his territory/chosen nesting site. These birds are supposed to bond for life but as the male is still so young and has not mated yet, finding the right mate who likes his chosen nesting site is going to be extremely hard in this instance. Two potential mates have already turned his nesting site down. I really thought he was going to mate with his first mate as they seemed very close to each other.

It might be worthwhile to put up some artificial nesting boxes somewhere. This may actually help the Grey Shrike-thrush to secure a mate better. But where to put the nesting box is another story. There is obviously not enough tree spaces to nest in, in the area.

I might look into pricing nesting boxes from the local Pet Store in the next few days and go from there. Maybe I can even get some for the Eastern Rosellas as well as some of the other bird species in the area.