bird new to me

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rgract
rgract's picture
bird new to me

Hi, I'm a newby here but I wonder if anyone could help me identify a bird I have not seen before. It appeared on my deck on the edge of Bournda NP in SE NSW forest. It is about 28-30cm and makes the most unusual noise. The noise is like a high-pitched threatening growl, like a cat or fox or something. It's quite alarming when you first hear it. It seems to do it just before it arrives to eat something. I imagine it scares away predators successfully if it can alarm me! It eats fruit pieces off the deck.

SteveM
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It's a Satin Bowerbird, either female or immature male.

Steve

Beef
Beef's picture

100% correct Steve! 

rgract
rgract's picture

Hey, thanks Steve. I looked up photos on the internet of the females and that's exactly what it is! When I was searching for an answer originally photos of the males come up and didn't suggest that's what it could be. There are 2 of them so one might be female and the other a juvenile I guess.

thanks again

Ron

Woko
Woko's picture

Hi there Ron. It's great that you were curious about the identity of that bird. This is a great forum on which the curious can shop for bird identities & other information. You might be interested in the discussions about artificial feeding of birds which have occurred here. Use the search box above if you're curious.

darinnightowl
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Satin bowerbirds like dog crunchies as well so what ever the dog does not finish the bowerbird will. So what fruits do you put out ? It looks healthy.

See it!  Hear it!

Mid-North Coast NSW

rgract
rgract's picture

Darrinnightowl

I started off putting out whatever fruits I happened to be eating myself. But the bowerbird wasn't interested in all of them, for example, it never touched fig pieces. Mostly now I just put out small cut up pieces of apple, grape and mango and it all disappears. Rainbow lorikeets turn up occasionally for the fruit as well. I started with leaving a little sunflower seed for the king parrots. The odd one will take some apple in its claw and chew on that for a while as well.

It's nice to have the local wildlife consider the house part of their landscape again. Food does attract bush rats and possums as well, so a fair variety of locals!

Ron

darinnightowl
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How many species of birds have you counted in your area ? Do you have a bird bath as well  Ron. 

See it!  Hear it!

Mid-North Coast NSW

rgract
rgract's picture

Heaps more than I can identify! There's about 15 species I can identify that either visit the deck or that I can observe easily from there. There's a lot of nearby waterbirds that I haven't tried to individually identify as yet. It's a wet coastal forest environment so there are many interesting birds I had not seen up close before such as lyrebirds, the satin bowerbird, whipbirds, bellbirds, white bellied sea eagle, white cheeked honeyeater as well as all the parrots.

There's lots of water around so a birdbath didn't seem necessary.

Ron

rgract
rgract's picture

I noticed the satin bowerbird yesterday on the deck as a bush rat appeared on the edge of the deck. The bowerbird went into a very loud, aggressive rendition of its hissing cat-like growl and the rat took off like a startled rabbit! The bowerbird then went and sat above where the rat had appeared and continued its hissing for a couple of minutes. Humourous really. Having bowerbirds around might keep the rats at bay!

Ron

darinnightowl
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How good is that birds will always let you know , what's around.

See it!  Hear it!

Mid-North Coast NSW

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