WingedHearts.org More love than you thought possible

Last week we lost two of our pied butcherbird friends. Gerry started getting sick first, with what looked like the same problem we successfully cures his relative Butch from last year. His eyes crusted up and it became hard for him to see. Unlike Butch though, Gerry wasn't at all interested in getting caught and taken to the vet etc. So we had to feed him antibiotic-soaked bread as the only way to get some medicine in him. read more »

  Teddy-Tommy are Butch and Cass's 2nd set of twins (born 2004, they are a year older than Dimpy).  They were the cutest and cheekiest of their kids.  Under watchful eyes of their older siblings Eddie-Freddy the Teddy-Toms pair delighted us for hours each day as they frolicked around our yard.  read more »

Can you spot the two scaly-breasted lorikeets with their lispstick red beaks?  They've just taken off after a drink and a bath at the lilypot. read more »

I told you about the conference the pied butcherbirds held on our mulberry tree. Since then, we have not seen Gerry's parents Freddy and Terry. Remember, Gerry is their nine months old bub. Gerry has been holding the main butcherbird territory all by himself every since. Two of the five of the newcomer birds think they have the right to live there with Gerry, and they have had a few arguments about who is allowed to take food where. read more »

I went outside this morning to say hello to Gerry, our local pied butcherbird juvenile, only to find that on the mulberry tree were Gerry and four adults. Gerry's family only has two adults.

What's up? The other week the intruder group of pied butcherbirds had made a sortie or two over our place and got Freddy, Terry, and Gerry all stirred up, but this time there didn't seem to be any conflict going on at all. read more »

Both Larry and Harrie grey butcherbirds and Freddy and Terry pied butcherbirds have brought their new chicks to see us this week. Larry came first with the noisiest bub this season, easily out-squarking all the magpie bubs, which takes some doing, because the grey butcherbirds are so very much smaller than the magpies. read more »

Butcherbirds in the wild get conjunctivitis quite often. In most cases the disease does not heal, causing the bird to go blind with tragic consequences. Unable to see, the bird can't find enough food and starves to death or flies into object injuring itself only to fall prey to predators or eventually starvation. read more »

Each year we've been blessed with our friendship with Maggie and his family and friends, there has been a different emphasis. Nothing has been the same two years in a row. This year, making sure we don't lose contact with grey butcherbird Larry, his family and friends, has been the big challenge. Previously, he had the territory over the road, and the pied butcherbirds Butch and family had the territory behind our house. (The two species have a single territory map, and don't share land.) Although Butch and gang don't want Larry to come, the situation worked out okay. read more »

We've had a very interesting week watching (and participating) in the relationships amongst our butcherbirds. On the back side of the house we have our original pied butcherbird family, Butch and Cass and two of their adult children. Along the road is a new pied butcherbird group of five or six, two of whom are two older kids of Butch and Cass, namely Teddy and Tommy, who, I am quite convinced once saved Gitie's life by warning her of a nearby highly venomous snake, and chasing it out of our yard. read more »