On Sun, 05 Nov 2006 02:06:19 +1100, Terryc wrote:

Joshua Slocum wrote:
Does anyone have any experience of bowerbirds eating vegetables
recently?

Are they absolutely sure they are bower birds?
I have trouble with blackbirds and seedlings and have to mesh them over.


Heh...

We have either 8 or 10 Spotted bower birds here (near Longreach CW QLD), and
they'll eat anything they like! They will eat the mandarins off the tree, but
leave the side facing the house (which is bloody annoying), they eat the chook
food, they eat lamb protein feed nuts (which are 1.5" and about 1/2" thick),
they eat pineapples, dry cat bikkys, yoghurt, pan drippings, tinned cat food,
bread, you name it.
Another problem is some of the stuff the bower birds nick is to imrpess the
girlfriend. Certain berries, and other objects become preferred favourites for
decking out the love-pad. They will also lay a fan of choice items out in front
of a female if she stays in one spot for a few minutes. If she moves a few feet,
he goes and gets a new lot of items(apparently cannot be seen using the old
stuff!). This is one way to lose a lot of berries/budding fruit or flowers from
your plants...

Am I surprised the bower birds might be eating the vegies? Not at all.

Is it because their habitat has been destroyed? No. It's because they will take
advantage of any opportunity they see to get an easy feed. They are great
survivors, and take advantage of it all.

We have to net anything of value in the garden to keep the bower birds out. They
love tomatoes, but will turn their hand to anything that they like. They are
smart, inventive, excellent mimics, jaunty, inquisitive and all of the above.
They cause us great headaches (as well as a few other birds here), along with
many hours of entertainment...

Oh...and wear leather gloves when removing one from the house. That bloody beak
is sharp!


Cheers,

Rod.....Out Back