Category Archives: Magpie
Magpies carolling with a view of Sydney Harbour
This morning I walked along a path overlooking Sydney Harbour and the headlands that act as a gateway to the ocean. A treeful of Australian Magpies provided musical accompaniment.
Common name: Australian Magpie
Scientific name: Gymnorhina tibicen
Approximate length: 40 cm
Date spotted: 3 October 2021 (spring)
Location: Dobroyd Head, Sydney Harbour: 33°48’36.7″S 151°16’03.4″E
Magpie scolds tree feller
The time has come for the felling of some huge gum trees in our neighbourhood. I’m hoping only some of the trees in the row will go, but I don’t know what the intention is. The trees are magnificent, but they’re a danger to the houses beneath them. I live in the next block, and had a bird’s eye view of the felling.
Over the past few weeks, there’s been some trimming of branches and undergrowth. Today was the big day for the removal of the trees. This photo shows the row of trees at the start of the day — they’re the white-barked giants in the middle of the picture, above the rubbish bins. See the orange blotch part-way up a tree on the right of the row? That’s the tree feller checking out the situation.
The trees are even higher than you think. The plot on which they’re growing is below the level of the road — in fact, the roof of the house is below the level of the road. So, the trees start about two stories below road level.
In the next photo, the tree feller has climbed higher and is attaching a harness and sling:
I take my hat off to the people who undertake tasks like this. So high!
This video shows one of the trees falling. It was the fourth one to go down. This one landed on the roof of the house below, which as far as I could tell was not the intention:
The neighbourhood birds were quite distressed about the whole experience. Rainbow Lorikeets zoomed away when the first tree came down. A couple of King Parrots swooped around calling, landing in our trees, then taking off again. An Australian Magpie sat in one of the trees outside my window and watched the proceedings. After the first tree came down, the Maggie swooped down to the power line near the row of trees and sang at the tree feller for about five minutes non-stop. I’m sure the Maggie was telling him off roundly:
The next video shows the tree feller climbing one of the trees. What a job!
Here’s the view the next morning:
I’m sad to see these grand old trees go, but I do understand the need to ensure the safety of the people living beneath them.
Kookaburra standoff with Magpie
In this video, a Laughing Kookaburra stands guard against an Australian Magpie. The kookaburra has a stash of some kind of food on the rock behind it. Before I started filming, the magpie tried a few times to approach the food. Now, as seen in the video, the magpie seems more or less resigned to just giving the kookaburra a piece of its mind. At the end of the video, an Australian Miner drops in too. I wish I knew what the Magpie was saying!
This is the kookaburra after it finished its meal and flew to a nearby branch:
Common name: Laughing Kookaburra
Scientific name: Dacelo novaeguineae
Approximate length: 47 cm
Date spotted: 28 March 2020 (late summer)
Location: Near Sydney, Australia
The magpie took refuge on our roof:
Common name: Australian Magpie
Scientific name: Gymnorhina tibicen
Approximate length: 40 cm
Date spotted: 28 March 2020 (late summer)
Location: Near Sydney, Australia
I didn’t get a shot of the Australian Miner. It’s probably one of the birds guarding the nest of baby miners which I’ve blogged about recently.
Birding at home
Like many people, I’m currently working from home to stave off the Coronavirus. There’s a great hashtag on Twitter at the moment: #BirdingAtHome. As a contribution to that hashtag, here are some of the birds I’ve seen at home over the last few days.
Laughing Kookaburra
Scientific name: Dacelo novaeguineae | Approximate length: 47 cm | Date: 17 March 2020
Grey Butcherbird
Scientific name: Cracticus torquatus | Approximate length: 30 cm | Date: 17 March 2020
I think this may be a juvenile, as the lines between the black and white sections of plumage are not well defined. The bird is on a Sydney Red Gum, one of my favourite trees, and currently the biggest tree in our garden:
Australian Magpie
Scientific name: Gymnorhina tibicen | Approximate length: 40 cm | Date: 17 March 2020
This inquisitive Australian Magpie landed on the roof of our porch and peered down at us. It was in a perfect spot to achieve a weird doubling effect with its reflection in the window. The real bird is on the left:
You can see the bird’s head and shoulders at the top and its feet at the bottom. Here’s another pose by the same bird in the same spot on the roof:
The magpie then hopped in through the window and examined the place:
A couple of days earlier, a juvenile magpie (note the soft grey colouring) posed like a statue on a pedestal. The pedestal is the trunk of a tree fern that died off a while ago:
A side view of the same bird on the same perch:
Pied Currawong
Scientific name: Strepera graculina | Approximate length: 45 cm | Date: 11 March 2020
Currawongs are not quite as bold as magpies. They tend to view human activity from afar and swoop past when something interesting is going on. This one chose a mossy perch that showed off its dark plumage and yellow eyes:
Musk Lorikeet
Scientific name: Glossopsitta concinna | Approximate length: 23 cm | Date: 18 March 2020
I don’t often see Musk Lorikeets. At the moment, a number of the gum trees are in flower and are attracting a variety of birds. It’s hard to get a good picture of a Musk Lorikeet. They seem to be more shy than other birds and take care to hide within the foliage as much as possible.
Rainbow Lorikeet
Scientific name: Trichoglossus haematodus | Approximate length: 30 cm | Date: 17 March 2020
We see many of these colourful, quarrelsome birds, and these last few days have been no exception. They were competing with the Musk Lorikeets for the same flowers:
Australian King Parrot
Scientific name: Alisterus scapularis | Approximate length: 44 cm | Date: 15 March 2020
A couple of days ago, I blogged about the two King Parrots that spent some time above our patio. Here’s the male again:
Grey-headed Flying Fox
Scientific name: Pteropus poliocephalus | Approximate length: 30 cm | Date: 18 March 2020
To finish off with, below is a very dark pic of a Flying Fox, which is a bat not a bird. In fact, it’s a megabat (yes, that’s a thing) and is one of the largest bats in the world. These bats eat fruit and flowers, and they visit the flowering trees at night. They make quite a noise, but it’s a privilege to have them around!
The bat is, as usual, upside down. You can see an ear near the bottom of the picture, slightly to left of centre. The nose is higher up on the left. The spiky bit to the right is a folded wing. The feet are attached to a branch at top centre. A Grey Headed Flying Fox is about 30 cm long and has a wing span of one metre.
Happy #BirdingAtHome everyone!
Australian Magpie singing
This young Australian Magpie dropped in to sing me a song! I think it’s a juvenile, as its eyes are brownish rather than red. It may be a female, as males tend to have a clearer demarcation between the black and the white sections of feathers, whereas females have more grey. But the colouring could be due to the bird being a juvenile.
The magpie spent at least ten minutes minutes singing, maybe more. I had time to grab my camera, make my way into the garden, film a few minutes from far away, then walk up and sit down near the bird and film again. This video is the result of the second set of filming.
Cool fact: Evidently magpies can hear the sounds of grubs and worms moving underground.
Common name: Australian Magpie
Scientific name: Gymnorhina tibicen
Approximate length: 40 cm
Date spotted: 6 January 2020 (summer)
Location: Near Sydney, Australia
Hanging out with an Australian Magpie
It’s early August, and spring is in the air. The weather is chilly but bright and clear. Birds have started collecting twigs and putting their best feather forward. And I’ve been having some interesting encounters with a magpie.
Spring in Australia is the season for magpie attacks, so I was a little wary when an Australian Magpie zoomed past my ear a couple of days ago. I was going down the steps outside the house. The bird decided it needed to be on the narrow patch of earth between the steps and a hibiscus bush, which was more or less where I happened to be too.
The magpie missed me by a very narrow margin, landed on the ground, and eyed me. Then it started trying to pull up one of the long, thin roots of the fishbone ferns that dominate that part of our garden.
Tug, tug, tuuuuug…
Let go in a hurry to avoid falling over when the root refuses to yield.
Try again. Tug, tug, tuuug,…
Almost fall over backwards. Embarrassing.
Try again…
So, being me, I started chatting to the magpie. “That’s not gonna work, mate,” and that kind of thing. It stopped tugging, looked at me, then went back to tugging. So I went closer. No worries, bird kept on tugging. Closer. Still no worries. Eventually I sat down on a step two feet away from the bird. I leaned over and tugged out a root (easy when you’re big and have hands) then held the root out towards the bird. To my surprise, the magpie took it from my hand and flew off with it!
The same bird came back a few hours later and we did the same thing all over again. And again the next day. During our third encounter, the bird accepted two thin roots from me. When I tried to offer a thicker root, the bird rejected it with disdain. Twice. Picky.
I took this video during that third encounter. I was using my phone to make the video, so bear with me when the picture moves away from the bird while I lean in to grab a root!
Yesterday I was hanging up the washing when the magpie appeared. I went down the steps and sat down for our usual chat. The magpie hopped up onto the step I was sitting on, then hopped up all the other steps one by one, just taking in the time of day, giving me the opportunity to follow it. Which of course I did. We hung out while I hung up the washing. Getting the hang of each other. 😀
(What’s that song? Sing a song of sixpence… The maid was in the garden, hanging out the clothes, when down came a blackbird, and pecked off her nose!)
Moody magpie on the Manly to Spit Bridge walk
Today I walked a small part of the trail that runs from Manly to Spit Bridge, on the east coast of Australia near Sydney. It was a lovely calm morning, early enough to avoid the late-autumn heat promised for the rest of the day. I came across a magpie perched on a tree. The early morning light combined with a recent burn in the area make for a nice moody, naturally monochrome shot:
Common name: Australian Magpie
Scientific name: Gymnorhina tibicen
Approximate length: 40 cm
Date spotted: 24 March 2019 (late summer)
Location: Reef Beach Track, Balgowlah Heights, near Sydney: 33°48’29.7″S 151°16’27.4″E
Just a few minutes’ walk further along the track, I saw this magnificent view. The front stretch of water is part of Sydney Harbour. In the distance is Manly wharf. The thin strip of land is Manly town centre, with the Pacific Ocean in the distance beyond the town:
I wonder if the magpie was enjoying the view as much as I did.
Magpie song with a touch of Star Wars
A sociable magpie dropped by the other day to try out its song on me. I think the bird is still a youngster, as its eyes are not yet the bright red of an adult. The magpie let me get up to about two metres away, and still happily continued its song. I didn’t try to get any closer. After all, it’s a wild bird and entitled to its space. Plus, magpies are known to fly off the handle at times.
As well as the usual magpie warbles, this bird adds a few extra whistles and chirps. Sometimes it sounds as if it’s been listening to a Star Wars sound track!
Common name: Australian Magpie
Scientific name: Gymnorhina tibicen
Approximate length: 40 cm
Date spotted: 24 December 2018 (Summer)
Location: Allambie Heights, NSW, Australia (near Sydney
Magpie serenade
Two magpies hopped onto a branch and serenaded each other as I walked past. They had to battle a fairly fierce wind, as you can see from the ruffled state of their feathers.
Common name: Australian Magpie
Scientific name: Gymnorhina tibicen
Approximate length: 40 cm
Date spotted: 26 January 2017
Season: Summer
Location: Long Reef near Dee Why, New South Wales, Australia: 33°44’21.1″S 151°18’30.8″E
Juvenile Australian Magpie calling and investigating his surrounds
It took me a while to identify this youngster. My choice was a magpie (but magpies’ eyes are red), a butcher bird (but this little fellow’s white cap is too big), or a currawong (but there’s too much white on this youngster). Then I read that a juvenile magpie has dark eyes. That clinched it.
So, here’s a juvenile Australia Magpie, playfully investigating a hole in a tree and a stray bit of fluff. Every now and then, the bird ducks and eyes the skies fearfully, as if expecting a sudden attack from above. As anyone knows who’s ever watched Australian birds in action, that fear is completely justified.
At one stage in the video, the warbling call of adult magpies makes the little one perk up and fluff his feathers in expectation of a feed.
Common name: Australian Magpie
Scientific name: Gymnorhina tibicen
Approximate length: 37 cm
Date spotted: 6 August 2016
Season: Winter
Location: Manly Dam Reserve, New South Wales, Australia
Latitude/longitude: 33°46’58.6″S 151°15’18.9″E
Sydney Birder 