Considering that I'm mostly only at home on weekends, and when I am home most of my time is spent out in the garden, AND that the birds tend not to visit if I'm around, it's pretty good luck that I can catch it in the act at all.
Pausing mid-song to peer at me.
The above photos and the below video was from a concert he/she gave back in February of this year.
It had been months since I had seen it, until this past weekend when I was pottering about inside for once, and heard a familar-ish song coming from the front garden. I thought for sure that it would fly away the minute I stepped outside, but it was too busy singing to take too much notice. I shot quite a bit of video of it, but for some reason our street got really busy all of a sudden and drowned out the song in parts. The below video is all I could salvage.
If it is the same butcherbird, it sounds as though it has worked hard over the months to perfect its song. I never knew this until recently, but butcherbirds are mimics. When listening to this one's serenade on Saturday, I could hear magpies, parrots, noisy miners and more I can't identify but that seem familiar.
Now that I have listened to the first video I took in February again, I can hear hints of the song that it would one day become.
Such a beautiful little creature, and I am so pleased that it feels safe enough to use my front garden as a stage on which to perform.
I enjoyed listening to the butcherbird serenades you recorded, Jess. I'll have to look into where it got that name (although I fear I may not want to know that).
ReplyDeleteSorry for taking my time to respond... Blogger doesn't appear to want to let me know when I get a comment!
ReplyDeleteThe origin of the name is probably exactly what you are thinking. They are very resourceful!