Strange doings of the butcherbirds

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.

We are not sure what's going on here. Did Freddy come to grief somehow, or have the pair simply decided to go elsewhere? (They were only here one year, having taken over from Freddy's parents Butch and Cass.) It is hard to tell the adult pied butcherbirds apart, but Freddy was very obvious because he had a rough patch on his beak. One of the two new birds (we think it is a she) has an injured wing, but still seems to fly around okay, so we can easily pick her from the others.

As for Vicky magpie and her two kids, they are still doing fine, but Gitie is worried that Vicky has not yet made any attempt (that we can be sure of) to find another mate to replace Maggie. We're keen to see what will happen during the coming breeding season.