HEIDI PADAIN: ENTERTAINMENT IN YOUR GARDEN We've all heard a great deal lately about how best to make room, and share what we have with others. There's a similar process taking place in the avian world. This first came to my attention when the cafe clean up crew made an appearance in the pohutukawa tree. That's right; the humble sparrow has soared to new heights. It was hard to tell how many there were in the tree because they never seemed to sit still, and they were very noisy, but in a delightful kind of way. I think they had an expansion plan. The more excitable they appeared, the more attractive the prospect might be for new members to join them. They're very good at communal living. Over a period of a few weeks, they had morphed into an all singing, all dancing, feathery cult! Our other neighbours, a pair of myna birds, were not so chipper. They had taken up residence in the phoenix palm. This is the penthouse arrangement. Personally I think these trees look like mutant pineapples, and coincidentally they are classed as a weed in New Zealand. Have you ever listened to the sound that the myna bird makes? It's a lot like a cash register ka'ching, ka'ching, ka'ching. Then there's the infernal screeching...
And yes, when dining out, I'm one of those annoying people who like to share my crumbs with the cafe clean up crew. (HEIDI PADAIN) F PN
Having observing these myna birds, I now have a fair idea why they screech the way they do. They don't like communal living, and they don't like to share, and here's something I find quite remarkable; they like to steal from one another.
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I was observing these birds flying in and out of the tree with nesting material. Yes, and out. I was puzzled. Why would they be dismantling their nest? I then discovered another pair of myna birds on a neighbouring property, and that's when I finally realised what was happening. They were literally robbing one another. It's difficult to imagine how myna birds ever get their nests built with this kind of carry on, but they clearly do. In no time at all, the range of noises emitting from the penthouse expanded somewhat. The moving mass in the pohutukawa tree had grown out of proportion, and the myna birds could bear it no longer. They worked collaboratively with their neighbours, and launched a full scale attack. I wondered if they had bartered nesting material. Anyway, the myna birds cleared the sparrows out in the most horrific manner. It wasn't pretty. The good news is that a small number of sparrows survived the attack, and while I don't like to feed or encourage our introduced species, I do accept that they're here, and they're here to stay, so I would never wish them any harm. Admittedly, when I saw the cutest myna bird chick peering down at me from the penthouse, my heart just melted.
110 PONSONBY NEWS+ September 2016
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