Strolling in Botanic Gdns on 6th Nov when we came across female satin bower bird tearing into some sort of dandelion plant I think. Got good short video on my camera and after researching on this site and others and in books am now 100% sure of the identification.Thought others might be interested to know as don't think they are meant to be in SA. Took some stills off video, thinking would be able to show them here. The purple/blue eyes were absolutely stunning.
That really is amazing if it has not escaped from somewhere. The western most edge of their range is in the Otway Ranges in Vic!
Cheers, Owen.
Astounding. Birds SA would be most interested to hear about your sighting, Jangi. They may even have corroboration assuming the bird you saw wasn't an escapee.
Didn't actually think about it being an escapee. Silly me! Might try ringing zoo tomorrow to see if they know anything and check lost notices in paper. Will also ring Birds SA and see what they have to say. Thanks for suggestion.
Hello Owen1 and Woko
Just to update you, I spoke to someone from the Bird Dept at the Adelaide zoo, and had heard of an escapee a while ago, so was quite interested to know it was still around, presuming it was the same one. The person I spoke so at Birds SA remembered a sighting a couple of years ago, but not in the Gardens. He is going to mention it at their next mtg.
Good one, Jangi. Sounds as tho' you're on the track of an escapee. It'll be interesting to hear what transpires at the next Birds SA meeting.
Although a single satin bower bird would probably be benign, the number of escapees of various species concerns me greatly. They can have a serious effect on populations of native birds. Some years ago I almost freaked out when 5 African peach-faced love birds landed at our place. If people are going to keep exotic creatures in cages then they surely have the responsibility of ensuring their security. If the birds escape it seems to me that there's an argument that the cager should pay for the recapture &/or destruction of the exotic birds - assuming there are the resources to do this.