My Burra Family: catbird fighting kookaburra

All the birds that visit the Tapas Bar have names and characters. And as the number has grown over the last 5 months, I thought it timely to do a who’s who post.

My Kooka Family is headed up by Boss & Bashful, then Bitey (he’s 2 yrs old), Brave Baby & Bully (last year’s bubs) and this year’s addition, Button.

But this post is about the others.

The Pee Wees (Magpie Larks):

Pernicious check herself out in the mirror
So this is a mirror. I like it.
I'm gorgeous.

I have a couple that are the regulars. Pedro & Pernicious Wee. Mr & Mrs P Wee.
Pedro has the black chin.

They’re great when there’s danger around. They’re the first into the fight.

Pernicious giving her reflection a touch up.
Their reaction to a Sea Eagle is the same.

They are great watchdogs. They have hearts as big as lions. They take on the biggest. If a Sea Eagle gets too close, they’re straight into it. They show absolutely no fear.

Pedro in profile.

I don’t get too many photos of them as their diet is mainly insects & their larvae and they tend to stick to the ground. They’re another bird that gives more shite than they take. It’s interesting that the Kookas ignore them. They will even try to peck feathers off the Kookas backs. And still they ignore them.

Mexican standoff
Ballsy move by Pernicious. Cedrick is the bully of the table.

Button the Kooka about to get a hard time from Pedro.

The others get a bit of a hard time from time to time. I’ve no idea what triggers these guys. They can all be playing in the morning & after lunch Pernicious comes back spoiling for a fight. Sometimes it's aimed at species (she might be agro with all the miner birds) or it might just be an individual. Pedro is a little more laid back, but will join in occasionally.

The role they play in the Tapas Bar story, is they are the proprietors a local Harassment business. If you have a neighbour you want moved. These are your guys.

One of our newest regulars is a Green Catbird:

He first visited a month or so ago & has been a daily visitor.

His name is Kit. He looks very similar, yet distinctly different, to another regular.
The Satin Bowerbirds. And that's because he is a Bowerbird. And he's the only Bowerbird not to make a "Bower".

This photo on the right, Kit couldn't get more grapes in his gob if he tried (& he did). I don't know how he sees past them to fly, but that's what he does. This is how he gets & keeps his mate. Similar to other male bower birds, he will attempt to attract females by displaying colourful fruits, flowers and leaves in his beak. Seems my Tapas Bar is getting him laid.

This was Kit's intro to the Tapas Bar.
Bully explaining why she's called Bully.

In no uncertain terms.

This guy is also the master of camouflage.

There’s more info on Kit on an earlier post.

The next on the list are the Wattlebirds:

I have two that visit. I’ve named them Red & Little John. These guys are primarily nectar eaters. They also snack on insects. Well, it turns out they also like pretty well anything that Chef puts up. As long as it’s soft.

These guys being nectar eaters, have a long thin beak with a long thin tongue. The end of their tongue is feather-like. They stick their head into the flower and probe that long tongue for nectar. The feather-like tip gets coated in nectar. The tongue is then pressed into a grove on the inside of their beak and the nectar flows down their throat.

Not much from my fridge gets tossed. These guys like old & bruised fruit. They are also partial to mashed pumpkin, but usually have to stand in line for that.
Which brings me to where these guys figure on the Tapas Bar totem pole.

A rose between two thorns.
Chefs Tapas is worth risking life and limb.

Well talking of roses...sort of

Two sides of........

............the same coin.

They’re noisy by voice, but pretty timid by nature. Turns out most of the regulars intimidate them. Little John being a bit younger than Red, is a tad more timid than Red.
They do have a problem with the Miners. With them it’s a numbers game. If only a couple of Miners then they give more then they get. But if there is more than a few, then feeding is a little stressful. All in the day at the Tapas Bar.

Shirley, the female Satin Bowerbird, about to give poor old Red a hard time.
He can't back peddle fast enough.

Mal, doing a quick flyby before lining Red up

Well, that's it for this post.

My next post will be the last of the crew -

The Butcherbirds, Doves & Others.

Stay well and see you on the next post.

It seems saving that Magpie (my last post), has bought me some good Karma.

Over the last week or so, I have had 3 new visitors to the Tapas Bar.
One I thought I’d get, One I hoped I’d get & One I didn’t know lived in the area.

As usual I have too many photos so I will post by visitor.

The One I didn’t know lived in the area. A Green Catbird.

Now all the birds at the Tapas Bar have names & characters.
So let me introduce you to Kit.
Kit, why don’t you tell them a bit about your self?

Well Hi, yes I’m Kit. I’m a Pisces, I like long walks along the beach

Bwahahahaha

No seriously, nice to meet you. My name can be a bit confusing (not the Kit part). You will have noticed I look a lot like my cousins Brad, Angelina & Shirley (Satin Bowerbirds), but my surname isn’t Bowerbird.

This is me

& my cousin Angelina

Angelina's partner Brad

We were kicked off the family tree some time ago. And why, I hear you ask?
Well, it seems my forefathers refused to build Bowers, which back then was a big No No. They believed it should take more than a mans bed to impress the girls. Things like character, provisioning skills, not things like how much blue I can collect.

Back then, that was akin to Galileo taking on the Pope.

So Ok, you want to know how we got the name Catbird. Those same forefathers, howled when being told they were getting kicked off the family tree. Their howls some say resemble a cats howl, and that’s how were got our name.

Now, falling from the tree had some advantages. Most significantly was colour. While all the Bowerbirds went on to develop outstanding colour to lure a mate, we thought it prudent, as we are all ground dwelling birds, to go down the camouflage path.

Our favourite game is playing Ninja

I am Ninja - now you see me......

.........now you don't. But I'm still here.

I must say my first experience here at Kooks Tapas Bar was not at all as I expected.
Flying in early, I noticed there was already a regular there. Good, I can go up & make my introductions.
And this is how that went.