When A Bird Chooses You For A Friend

The magpies were the first birds we became friends with, even though they came into yard years after the noisy miners, peewees and pied butcherbirds.  

Minnie noisy-miner (left) initiated the friendship.  For weeks she had been watching us talk to the magpies. The two species do not eat the same foods. Noisy-miners eat insects and nectar from the plants.  They love the grevillea bushes (pictured below with a rainbow lorikeet),  (experts liken it to a McDonalds for noisy-miners) and Minnie would spend hours hopping from flower to flower in our backyard.  Magpies on the other hand are bug eaters - they like to potter on the ground digging out bugs and worms. They also like a bit of cheese and bread, which should only be given to them in small quantities as a supplement to their natural diet.

Minnie did not eat or have any interest in the foods we were giving the magpies and we did not feed the noisy-miners.  One day I was asking Maggie's sisters Cindy magpie and Tammie magpie to help me stop the peewees from crashing into the glass doors, windows and car windscreens.  Minnie flew out of the grevillea bush and helped chase the peewee just as it was flying towards the car.  She then looked at me, as if to say "isn't that what you wanted"?  She then flew over to the magpie sisters who were sitting on the telephone wire, and looking pleased as punch told them how she had understood and helped their human friend. I thanked her for her help.

From then on Minnie became an important friend. She did many interesting things and has taught us much about birds.  I will tell you more stories during this 30 day blog challenge.  

You can also get a free subscription to the series:   

23 Amazing Facts About Wild Bird Culture with true stories - click on this link and enter your details

Until tomorrow,

Cheers

Gitie