Help with Wattlebird Autopsy please!

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Owl of Kedumba
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Help with Wattlebird Autopsy please!

What I would like to know, is HOW this Red Wattlebird died and HOW it is still hanging in a tree. It's been up there for many months now. Ironically this is at the local cemetary! Help please!

Owl of Kedumba
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Any ideas at all???

Woko
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Is that fishing line I see wrapped around its leg(s)? If so, it may be someone hung it there or it became ensared.

Owl of Kedumba
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Good observation I thought it was a spider web.

Assuming it is fishing line (and not a spider web), then I'd ask myself how it got there. This tree is not all that large but it's lowest branch is far too high to reach. So maybe the only way is that the bird got tangled in the fishing line and flew onto that branch and got further entangled. And thus it couldn't free itself. The fishing line may have come from the old tip (now waste management facility).

Sound like a half reasonable explanation?

Woko
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A reasonable hypothesis, I'd say, Owl of Kedimba.  

Owl of Kedumba
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Case closed I'd say.

Shirley Hardy
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I looked at this and upon closer examination it doesn't look like fishing line to me. The stuff doesn't hang down like fishing line should hang down. Its been more than 10 years since I've handled fishing line personally, so my facts are as rusty as my memory. It looks more like some sort of plastic-ish type of material, by the way it bends, creases, etc. I remember a few years back when I washed my carpet mats, a grey mat was hung up on the clothes line carpet side up. There were bits of plastic-like material loose on the mat hanging off of the mat (from the edges). It was a really old grey mat. I saw a Red Wattlebird land on the clothes line and began pulling the loose plastic-like material off of the underside of the mat until it had a really long strand of it. Then it flew away with the strand to add to it's nest. Do you know the stuff I'm talking about, Owl of Kedumba?

It is possible that it could be something like this which I think would be easier for this species to collect. I still wouldn't rule out fishing line though. And I agree that it got tangled up in the stuff, and more than likely the stuff tangled up in the tree branches too, ensnaring the bird into a death trap. 

P.S. Can I link this post of yours into my post "Natural Nesting Material" in the general forum section? It would benefit both of our posts actually.

I'm at Tenterfield, NSW. (Formerly known as "Hyperbirds".)

Owl of Kedumba
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Yes Hyperbirds I understand what you mean. Sounds possible, in fact I could say more likely as I don't think there are too many fishermen here in the mountains... And absolutely you can link this to "Natural Nesting Material." Thanks

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