Can anyone help me? Someone at work was asking me about a mother maggie and her juv.
He said she was pushing it's head down to the ground with her beak all the time and as a result he kept sitting down. We were wondering, as she was looking for insects at the time, is it possible that she was trying to teach it to eat and hunt?
We have a few juv maggies around and they really are big noisy babies for their size. in comparison, the juv butcherbirds seem a lot smarter. maybe just imagination I guess.
Cheers
BIrdie
That could be right, or maybe the young one wanted food and the mother didn't have it so it was pushing it away? Who knows,..q
Birdie _ I think you are right. We get a lot of the White-backed Maggies in our yard and I often see the behaviour you describe. I have always thought that as the maggies spend a lot of time pulling worms etc from the ground that this is exactly what they are trying to get their young to do - to cease relying on being fed and start foraging in the ground.
It is fascinating to watch the pigeons at the moment as their young are coming out of the nests and the adults jump from branch to branch teaching the young to follow suit.
Haven't heard from Tassie for a while - hope he and his truck are OK.