Kookaburra Begging call

boss burra

Kookaburra have a number of calls they use (each with a specific purpose).

I hope to cover a number of these in future posts.

The first one I want to share is the most interesting.

The “Begging” Call (given by baby birds).

Now, we all easily recognise this call. It’s the same call all birds make. Whether a baby Penguin, or the flighty Swallow. The call is the same.

A persistent & very demanding call saying feed me now. Usually triggered when the parents return to the nest.

Ok - say we all know what I’m describing – yeah.

And it usually ceases within a few week of the baby leaving the nest. And with Brave Baby Burra & Bully Baby Burra it certainly did.

Now, this is the interesting bit………………..

The call attached, is being displayed by Boss Burra to me.

But it could have been any one of them (you can hear Bitey in the background – perched on the guttering above me). They all do this.

And they only do it to me. Not each other.

So they have changed their behaviour to suit their environment.

Kookaburra Feeding - Feed Me call

 

Meet the family

Boss Burra

Boss Burra is my favourite. Boss is one of the breeding pair & the smartest of the lot.  It was thru his lead that all of this that follows, is possible. He was the first to; fly up to catch food, be hand fed, perch on my hand & be fed. I have a special bond with Boss. He will even accept a hug (although I’m not sure how much he enjoys that – I’ll let you be the judge of that).

These are the sort of vids I intend to post.

Often after feed time, he seems content just to sit next to my elbow, and enjoy the moment, as we look out over the view at dusk.

Kookaburra Feeding - Boss Burra#1                  

 

Bashful Burra

I believe this to be the Mate with Boss Barra. This one is much more timid & thus the name. A bit uncomfortable with the whole thing. She will land on the rail and be fed, but she flies off to eat. It’s the same with sitting on my hand to be fed. She is happy to sit there for a while with the promise of food, but once fed flies off to eat. And she is the least often to feed. I have a Spur tree opposite (where they all congregate), and quite often she will sit up top & just observe.




Bashful doing her thing video
Kookaburra Family - This one is called Bashful Burra 

       
Bitey Burra

This is last year’s fledgling. He was named for his ability to miss the food 90% of the time & bite my finger. To this day he still does it (although not as often). This one has a cheeky character. If I get distracted feeding another, he will try to pinch some food from the plate. I then took to laying a welding glove over the plate, and he still persists with trying to nudge it off.

Brave Baby Burra



One of this year’s fledglings (2). His name was obvious from the get go. So ready to do anything. I think he definitely has Boss Burra’s genes. He took to hand feeding straight away. Within a couple of weeks he was happy to perch on my hand while being hand fed, and now will also accept a hug. He is also happy to sit inside my elbow, which protects him from attack from his twin.

 

 

 

Bully Baby Burra

Boy, was this one different from the start. From fledgling stage he was aggressive to the rest. Most of the aggression was aimed at his sibling (Brave Baby), he copped the brunt of it. It wasn’t long until that aggression was shown to the others. He would even attack his parents. I think he has behaviour problems. When he attacks it’s not just beak jousting (normal). He grabs them from the neck, wing, whatever part he can get a hold of. Another vid I will post.  Yet he is the hardest to feed. Most timid, I’m not sure. On some occasions he will happily sit on my hand to be fed (only when he sees food), but most times not. He seems to have formed some sort of bond with Bitey. But even Bitey is not immune from his attacks, but when they fly up to the She Oak tree behind, most times he perches next to Bitey.

Bitey about to get a surprise from his little Sister

 

Our History

The Burra Family



Bully Baby

2012:

October I think, I started feeding some Kookaburra that would land on my back fence (4). Initially it was only a few times a week, but it didn’t take long for it to develop into a daily visit. It was nice to come home after work to see them patiently waiting for whatever scraps I’d saved from the previous night’s dinner. This continued until late November – when they didn’t return.

During those few weeks, they started to show that they had individual personalities. 1 learnt that he could get more food if he caught it in the air. (I named him “Boss Burra”). This was unique to him – the others never followed suit.

2013: I had forgotten about my Kookaburra’s until one day in Jan/Feb ’12 they appeared on my back fence again.

Not sure if they were the same gang, I threw a small piece of meat into the air to see one fly up and snatch.

They were back.

So for the next few days we were back to the routine of last year.

Then;

One day they arrived with a baby Burra. He could fly, but just. (If you’ve seen baby wilder-beast born – yes they can walk – but they're all over the place...it’s funny). Well he was the same.

He would go to land on the fence & fall off. Then from the ground, try to fly up & only get half way & fall back. Couple of tries & he would nail it.

This was an interesting period for me. Watching him grow up & the relationships he formed with the others.

After having a bit of a feed themselves they would take turn feeding the baby.

Like a kid, he was clumsy with his food. I think he dropped ½ what was given to him, which leads to another story;

During the “clumsy period”, 2 local Wattle Birds started to take a liking to the fall out. They were picking up pieces of meat they could barely get their beaks around. It was funny to see them fly away under the load of that meat.

Now, this is unusual for Wattle Birds, as they are insect/nectar eaters.

Day or so later they were joined by their fledgling. But not a baby Wattle Bird.

A baby Asian Koel. Probably 20 – 30 % bigger than its parents.

The “parent” Wattle Birds thought of it as their own.

They would jump in & grab some meat to feed the “kid”.

Then things get interesting. As the baby is so much bigger than them & ravenous, they have to be careful not to lose their head when feeding. A couple of times they were too slow, and their heads would disappear into that big gob.

Note: How did they know to feed it meat?

 Anyway – back to my Burra Family.

After a few weeks of being fed by the others, he had a go for himself. Knowing he had a beak, but not knowing really how to aim it, he would pounce on a bit of meat on the grass, and come up with a beak full of grass. He would play with this for a minute or so, before he decided it wasn’t what he was after. 2^nd attempt – all good. It was this way for a while, fed by family, grab meat on own, grab stick – play with, grab meat, grab rock – play with.

At this time I started to temp them with food left on the balcony rail next to me.

It didn’t take long & they were comfortable taking scraps off the railing next to me (on a swoop & grab basis).

It was at this time Boss Burra realised he would get more food if stayed on the rail, and thus started the hand feeding. While the others weren’t confident enough to sit and be fed, they were happy to swoop & grab from fingers.

That’s how “Bitey” got his name. Not once did he ever grab the meat, it was always my bloody finger.

With patience & persistence, they all became used to being hand fed from the rail.  Bitey, being Bitey, still bit my finger. (The others used to wait below to grab the meat he missed by biting my finger)

As winter approached, I had a bit of a breakthrough with Boss Burra. He was now willing to sit on my fist and be hand fed.

That was to be the status quo for the rest of the year, until 1 day late in spring they left and didn’t
return.

2014:

On Australia day, I was having lunch on the veranda, when they appeared from nowhere. I hadn’t seen a Kookaburra on the reserve for months. I would hear them every day, but in the bush behind my place (I guess everyone stays close to the nest while the chicks are vulnerable)

It was great to see them back, but it was only 3 with 2 new fledglings.

But who was back…..a piece of meat in the air confirmed Boss Burra was back. As well as Bashful Burra & Bitey Burra.

 I have seen so many things with these Kookaburra I didn't know, I decided to log some of these observations in a blog.

 

Welcome to my blog. 

So stay tuned, as the plan is to regularly update my blog with some photo's / vid's and hopefully, some pretty interesting observations.

http://bradsburras.blogspot.com.au