Bird Diary
Coburg Front Room 7.45am Sun 24th
‘Weh, weh; woh woh woh’
Then again
‘Weh, weh; woh woh woh’
A crow (Corvus mellori) calls loudly. Ambient doves; odd wattlebird; odd car.
Then, faint carolling of magpies down along the Merri. Doves calling to each other, a wattlebird again. All faint, no main players (or singers rather) since the crow.
More than 25 mins later:
Butcherbird whistles it’s lovely tune nearby-
1 2 3 4
123
123
1 2 3 4
123 rise in pitch sequentially and 4 drops.
Plus a dove with it’s slightly gurgling ‘coo’ (‘cuckoo-crroooo-cuck’ in Simpson and Day). It seems like a great effort to make this sound, not the relaxed purr of the common pigeons’ ‘oom’-ing (Columba livia). Almost breathy.
‘Our – ourrr’
‘Our – our – ourrr’
‘Our – our – ourr’
Repeated two or three notes. Higher in pitch than common pigeon. One or two short notes followed by a longer note that drops slightly in pitch.
The sounds of the butcherbird and magpie carolling whistles combine in the street somewhere – not an exchange but an unintentional duet (I think).
Singers:
Little Raven (Corvus mellori)
Spotted Turtle Dove (Streptopelia chinensis)
Red Wattlebird (Anthochaera carunculata)
Australian Magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen)
Grey Butcherbird (Cracticus torquatus)
A useful link for some examples of these birds is:
