Close bird enconters

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hawk227
hawk227's picture
Close bird enconters

I've been feeding some King Parrots that have been waking me up. Then one day, while i was playing a boardgame with my family I heard a fimiler sound of a King Parrot outside. I grab the seed bucket and slowly went outside, grabbed a handful of seed in my hand and inched myself closer to the King Parrots (m&f). I got to the rail and kept my hand there. The male slowly move to my hand and started eating the seed OUT OF HAND!!! I was soooooo excited! Then, they were both eating out of my hand. Unfortunetly, The camra didnt work to take that special moment. Anyway after that, I've getting more King Parrots outside my window. All of that was true, I didnt make it up, I swear. But if anyone has had a moment like that, send it in and maybe a photo to prove it. It will be great to share.

soakes
soakes's picture

That's great. Keep it up and soon you will have them perching on your arm. Make sure you have a camera handy!

My king parrots seem to have disappeared lately.

- soakes

soakes
Olinda, Victoria, Australia

raysimula
raysimula's picture

King parrots can become very tame. Check out these birds at Cania Gorge Caravan Park in QLD.



These are wild birds that have become used to people just from feeding.
Ray

Tassie

Nice shots Ray,did you catch any Bass while you were at Cania Gorge.
Tassie

raysimula
raysimula's picture

Yes Tassie,5 days fishing resulted in 2 bass and 2 yellowbelly. As is always the case, the fish weren't biting the week I was there. But it is a brilliant place to visit, lots of birdlife and other wildlife.
Ray

Tassie

Yeah Ray very nice place to visit the family and I used to go up there for some long weekends.
You would know about the township of Cania that is under the dam.
They took a couple of the headstones and put them up at the lookout prior to filling the dam.
The birds are very tame up there to mate
Sounds like you had a top time with the fishing I never had much luck.
The birds up there are fairly tame mate thats for sure.
Tassie.

ed
ed's picture

Teashop at Paluma, North Queensland.(I think no longer open)
Sometimes maybe a bit too tame!!!

Ed Townsville NQ

Tassie

Thats unreal mate,had your own live bird show going on there.
Tassie

Tazrandus
Tazrandus's picture

I can understand parrots with the playful nature to be intimate with humans but, wow, honeyeaters and riflebirds? That is so awesome! I would love to get close to the shyer and rarer species of birds, it's pity that the teashop is no longer open... I would've loved to dine there :(

Taz

Gelmir
Gelmir's picture

G'day ed. What birds are they? I can ID the Macleays Honeyeaters, and is the black one a Victoria's Riflebird? And I can't quote work out the 2 larger ones on either side.

ed
ed's picture

Hi Gelmir
Yes they are riflebirds, the brown birds are females or maybe imm males. The male bird has just uncovered the plate, just like stripping bark. Everytime we covered it up he came down and tossed the cover off to get at the pasta.!!

Ed Townsville NQ

hawk227
hawk227's picture

Hey It's Hawk again, long time no see. I've just checked the forum and It's is looking FANTASTIC!!! Unfortunatly for me the male King Parrots aren't coming as much now which is a real shame but there are LOTS of female K.P (King Parrots) which is good. Keep sending in does pics of close bird encounters because they look fantastic.

CapturedByKylie
CapturedByKylie's picture

We have a family of Magpies which visit us several times a day at the moment for a little bit of mince. They are now so used to us that they take the mince out of our hands- even the young ones have started eating out of our hands.
WE also have rainbow Lorikeets come around for seeds, and we used to have corellas and cockatoos eat out of our hands too (but once they started taking a liking to the eaves, etc we eased up on how much we fed them so they'd go looking for their own food rather than rely on us to feed them.)

Amateur

Well, I don't think that feeding the Rainbow Lorikeets seed is a good idea, according to Denis the seeds which they love to eat damage the Lorikeets tongue which is required for them to eat nectar (or something like that), for more info you might want to post a topic about it.

DenisWilson
DenisWilson's picture

Hi Amateur.
Not quite what I have said recently about Lorikeet tongues.
.
Lorikeets are generally blossom feeders, and do have a specially adapted furry tongue. But like most parrots, they are opportunists, and will take a range of easy food.
Currumbin Sanctuary used be the classic example (of what to NOT do).
.
There are other more general issues against artificially feeding birds. However, even I leave out a few apples every now and then for the local Bowerbirds. So I am not dogmatic about it.
.
In general is it just not good to allow birds to become dependent upon your feeding them.
Also disease issues, when large numbers descend upon a regular feeding place.
Parrots can be incredibly dominant too (chasing other species away) and destructive of houses, gutters, window frames (particularly relevant with Cockatoos).
.
In general, if you want birds around your house, (and who amongst us doesn't?) plant plants (including shelter plants, not JUST Grevilleas, instead of feeding them with grain.
.
Water sources around a garden help greatly.
.
Avoid feeding cats. though (with birds attracted to your "safe" environment). Any cat will kill birds - even your neighbours "lovable Kitty".
.
Cheers
Denis

bushanwater
bushanwater's picture

I agree whole heartedly Denis. Unfortunately nurseries tend to advertise grevilleas and callistamons (probably spelt wrong) as bird attracting plants. Don't forget seed producing grasses(not mown lawns) and shelter type trees. I suppose the best idea is to copy the local native habitat the best you can with the area you have.

See Yez
Trev

Amateur

Interestnig, I could've swore you posted something on a thread about seeds damaging the tongue. Some guy was talking about feeding his king parrots and rainbow lorikeets/ Maybe I'm just going crazy... Also, If a bird does become dependant on you, if you've been feeding it, if you stopped feedin them would they be able to fit back into their usual habts of searching for food, or would they die of starvation after a while?

Amateur

Sorry Denis, I remembered reading something about it but it was Tassie that posted it. I'll just quote it here.

"Gidday Ceekay, We are all guilty of it at some stage,the thing that most concerns me is the feeding of seed to Lorrikeets.
Lorries have a fine "brush" on their tongues for nectar feeding and seed can seriously damage these brushes even though they love seed.
In time they are unable to feed on nectars as this brush wears down and I don't need to tell you the end result.
I used to feed them at my old place and I fed them mango,apple etc.
Hope this helps."
This was placed in response to Ceekay's question about whether it was good or bad to feed wild birds. Here's the thread

http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/forum/messages.cfm?threadid=A77F3BD2-A5D2-2216-B0BE24CACB24FE08

Hope it helps.

CapturedByKylie
CapturedByKylie's picture

I'm sorry if my post was taken the wrong way.
I am not out to purposely feed nectar feeding birds seeds- the seeds were placed out for the seed-eaters who frequent our yard.
We are in the middle of renovations here so the garden planting has not been finalised.
I used to own and breed many types of aviary birds growing up so i do know what their dietry requirements are.
The house which i grew up in (about 20kms away) has been planted out with many different types of natives which does attract close to a dozen or so types of native birds.

Angela
Angela's picture

I decided that its probably best not to put out food all the time having read what people had been saying on the site.
I now just put out a small amount of seed once in a while when we sit out, the birds still come down when we put the seed out so we get quite a few close encounters which is what we want.
But even when there is no seed there we still have lots of visitors to the garden.
We've been planting like mad and I agree with Trev, that its best to leave some of your garden to stay native. We've decided to leave part of our paddock un-mowed put grasses in and just mow a path through.
Sort of like a nature trail through our own back yard.
At lest that's the idea, lets hope that Mother Nature goes with that idea too ...Angela

DenisWilson
DenisWilson's picture

Hi Kylie and Angela
I am not trying to be dogmatic about advice offered on this topic. Many people do feed birds.
Glad you understand about different dietary requirements of birds, Kylie.
Angela. Best wishes with the garden layout - and the birds.
Cheers
Denis

Amateur

Sorry Kylie if the tone in my comments was agressive or condescending in anyway. Also, just curious, what types of seed eating birds frequent around your garden?

kathiemt
kathiemt's picture

We were advised not to do it when we shifted to our new home in the Dandenongs. We have a redwood cedar home. We were told of one couple who feed the galahs and cockatoos and when they went away one year for a holiday they came back to their badly pecked, eaten and damaged wooden house because no-one was there to feed the birds.

I throw out fruit scraps (cut up apple and pear cores), etc onto the lawn but only occasionally - not every day. I figure they raid the plum tree by the house so throwing out fruit scraps is ok.

Kathiemt
Selby, Victoria
 

kathiemt
kathiemt's picture

We were advised not to do it when we shifted to our new home in the Dandenongs. We have a redwood cedar home. We were told of one couple who feed the galahs and cockatoos and when they went away one year for a holiday they came back to their badly pecked, eaten and damaged wooden house because no-one was there to feed the birds.

I throw out fruit scraps (cut up apple and pear cores), etc onto the lawn but only occasionally - not every day. I figure they raid the plum tree by the house so throwing out fruit scraps is ok.

Kathiemt
Selby, Victoria
 

kathiemt
kathiemt's picture

Sorry, couldn't see my post so posted again, only to find the second page. Not sure how to remove it.

Kathiemt
Selby, Victoria
 

Amateur

Lol, don't worry, I think I posted the same thing about 4 times before I realsied there was a second page. No way to delete it unfortunately, yes, if you let birds become dependant on you it often leads with dire consequences as it changes their diet possibly doing damage to their health or in the case of feeding lorikeets seeds it damages their tongue. Occasionally feeding them is alright I suppose, as long as the birds could survive if you stopped doing it suddenly.

hawk227
hawk227's picture

Here, here. I joined just over a year ago and use to love to feed birds out of my hand (See first post). After my first post I started to try to get them on my arms and then my shoulders. But I learnt something from my dad about over feeding and birds eing dependent on you. I've got a pet cockateil and that's big enough. So that why I've stopped training them to go on my hand. I've just put out a odd pile once in a while and keep a close distance from them.
Keep peace to God's Birds
The Hawk

Amateur

Sounds like a beautiful little cottage you had then, sounds like a nice place.

al
al's picture

.... I was kneeling down to photograph a blue tongue lizard, when this two birds crash-landed in front of me.....

kathiemt
kathiemt's picture

Aren't they cute? Watched these two watching out for food and then they turned and....

Cute, huh?

Kathiemt
Selby, Victoria
 

Anonymous

Couldn't agree more with the no feeding sentiments. There's just too much we don't know about the possible implications - it's so easy to upset the natural balance.
I used to volunteer at a wildlife rehabilitation centre and the huge number of baby magpies coming in with calcium deficiency (weak and soft beaks and legs, sometimes even broken, sometimes euthanasia was the only option) was horrible.
This is thought to be happening due to them eating plain meat instead of their natural diet.

kathiemt
kathiemt's picture

There's a story in our local paper this week. The council are planning to discuss and put a vote against people feeding the cockatoos in the Dandenongs. There's a lot of people who feed them in their yards.

We do have a feeder out but only occasionally put seed in it. The birds have plenty of fruit and nuts from our trees and other properties for them not to be looking for food from us constantly. But there are some who do have seed in their feeders every day. The cockatoos in particular can cause a lot of damage to properties. We have a wooden home and we are aware of the problems that can arise so don't want to be encouraging the birds all the time.

Kathiemt
Selby, Victoria
 

bushanwater
bushanwater's picture

Well for my part I have had a partial win in the bird feeding argument in my house. The finches still get into the aviary for a free feed but the others have to fend for themselves. No feeding any other birds at all these days.

See Yez
Trev

hawk227
hawk227's picture

Hey everyone I'm back,
There seems to be a lot of bird action happening all over our little country. It's come that time where the birds would rather snuggle up in there little home than to come to our place a feed but we get a few birds in the morning. A week ago, I woke up and opened my blinds. Couple of minutes later, there are 3 Crimson Rosella havind a good play with the roses we have in the garden. There have been a lot less Rainbow Lorikeets around our place and now, every 3 months or so, my mum finds a dead one. Not a pretty thing to about, ay. Well, keep those photos coming and I'll try to keep in touch.
Kind Regards
The Hawk

Amateur

Makes sense, I'm pretty sure it's breeding season for the lorikeets so they'll probably be keeping to the trees and stuff for the time being, lol, learnt that when we went to (Currumbin I think?) where they had the lorikeet feeding time event, so soon they should be even more numerous then before :D. perhaps the dead ones is a fledgling that fell out of a tree or something? Hopefully it's nothing serious, good luck with that, sounds like a beautiful place

hawk227
hawk227's picture

Hey,

I think one of the lorikeets looked a bit young but I sure the rest were adults. Beats me whats happening.

Regards
The Hawk

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