My husband and I are very fortunate to live on Fraser Island. Over the years I have become attached to four other residents of our property.
Not more than two paces from where I sit enjoying my cuppa a Noisy Friarbird probes into a nectar- rich grevillea flower. One might say it is an ugly bird – almost prehistoric in looks – but I see the piercing red eye of an amazingly adaptable bird with a fan of delicate white lacy feathers spread in a semicircle over its otherwise non-descript grey chest. I use the word adaptable because this skilled forager likes nothing better after its sweet nectar meal to then feast on spiders from under the eaves of our house, or probe under tree bark for other meaty delights. They are one of the cleanest birds on our property bathing in our bird-bath several times per day; we often wonder what is it with water and Noisy Friarbirds? They have made a delightful well formed cup-shaped nest of twigs and grass in an outer branch of the ‘wood pear’ not 15 m from our house. If they do rear a brood of babies (goannas are frequent callers) then Blue Faced Honeyeaters will move in to the old nest for their family raising.
There is no other word but ‘awful’ to describe their calls (Rob and I call them ‘squarkers’), a repeated raucous ‘poor soldier’ greets you at 5 o’clock every morning, yet there is something comforting in the fact that they have always been in our trees, always nested in the same area, minding their own business regardless of our impact on their surrounds. It is gratifying to see this is their home, either accepting us or choosing to ignore us, we will never know but we seem to cohabit quite congenially.
As I eat my sandwich and flick a crumb to a Grey Butcherbird I see a truly intelligent little bird. Smaller than his cousin the common Pied Butcherbird this amazingly agile ‘Butchy’ is ever-watchful from on high for an opportunity of a meal. I say intelligent because our Butchys ‘stash’ food for later on. We have seen them on numerous occasions hide food in the big Banksia flowers pushing it into the sticky centre for enjoying afterwards. We have also seen them ‘shred’ their dinner by poking food into a branch fork or under rough bark then pulling at it into separate bits, whether it be a grub large moth or lizard, then eating the shredded morsel.
Our Butchys have a wonderful array of tunes and will sit on our railings and sing some incredible notes. If however a relative attempts to steal the other’s ‘stash’ in the trees or Banksia flowers and they spot them they have a certain (always the same ) alarm call and fly at great speed after the offender. Our Butchy family have had several broods in the same surrounding trees over the years. The male is very striking in his white, black and grey outfit, whereas the wife is a less distinct mousy grey/black and usually pretty scruffy looking. Our Grey Butcherbirds are worth watching because they are always busy, darting to the ground for a grub, enjoying our bird-bath, taking insects on the wing in an acrobatic display second to none, singing in a tree close by or just ever-watching for their next opportunity. They certainly are survivors.
Top of the food chain no doubt are our Kookaburras, in fact two are looking at me at this moment. With our home surrounded by trees, a good sized bird-bath and nice grassy area Kookaburras love to loiter on our block. We first met ‘our Kookies’ some 10 yrs ago. The pair have reared (to our knowledge) at least 3-4 broods, as a rule they have had three babies each season, over that period. Initially when we first bought our land we only visited occasionally so did not keep tabs on them as much but over the past four years Mum, ( who is quite timid) and Dad (who is friendlier) have hung around our property and surrounding neighbours. You may say how do we know they are “our” Kookies well we do know mainly by their flying habits and certain limbs they sit on. In breeding season Dad becomes quite thin and haggard looking with tatty feathers from constantly carrying food to Mum and the kiddies. Their nest is usually in the same spot and we have witnessed Dad flying to and fro for weeks on end to feed the hoard. He doesn’t seem to eat the food himself carrying lizards, grubs and whatever in his beak to the nest. When the babies learn to fly it is quite funny watching them landing on branches then badgering their parents for food. The babies grow swiftly seeming to be much bigger than their parents in no time.
Adults have rather odd behaviour in that they will use the bird-bath then dive beak first into nearby sand and with a beak-full distribute the sand under their feathers. They will repeat this for hours, fluffing the sand amongst their wings then hop into the bird-bath again, they get hopelessly wet flopping around in the bath.
Their very public display of hatred towards goannas is a site to behold. Many a time we have witnessed battle between these two adversaries – the goanna up a tree and Kooky dive-bombing him snapping at him aggressively voicing the same alarm call ( we call it their Goanna alarm). The goanna usually climbs up as far in the tree as he can go, the bird will hang around attacking the goanna for as long as it takes; sometimes for hours before the goanna either comes down and runs away or jumps to another tree branch then heads down. The same call occurs when a large snake is around. If it’s a small snake it usually becomes lunch. We have also witnessed them killing (by banging against a branch) a baby bird fallen from a nest after windy weather. Ever-watchful Kookies seem to ‘think’ before they swoop onto reptiles or insects amazingly seeing movement on the ground that you or I would never see. I cannot help but wonder why some landholders persist in clearing their small holdings destroying the trees that give home to these magnificent birds.
Another resident bird we have is the Blue Faced Honeyeater. Now this chap is quite aggressive toward our other visiting or resident honeyeaters. They also badger the Kookaburras sitting just pecking distance from them. They squabble with our Squarkers and actively chase them out of the grevillea that they wish to feed in and they actually ‘shadow’ the Butcherbirds without actually being aggressive.
The adult displays a striking blue face the texture akin to satin, a colour that is almost unbelievable. It has olivey wings and white underparts. Its voice is nothing special with a ‘woik’ repeated which is a little annoying. Ours have, in the past, reused the nest of the Squarkers and to our knowledge been successful bringing out several chicks. As we have a garden full of grevilleas there is no lack of sweeties for them. Not my favourite bird but certainly striking to look at.
Having a pole-home we are able to observe the four different species almost at their level and have seen some amazing qualities in these otherwise common ordinary birds.
All the birds I have mentioned use our bird-bath frequently along with numerous others that I call ‘visitors’. However our four, the Kookies, Butchys, Squarkers and Bluefaces are our co-habitants and so far we and they are living quite happily together. I ask those who have thoughts of “clearing a bit more land” it’s very easy to chop another tree down but in whose lifetime will it be replaced?