I haven’t had many spare moments this week but the few I’ve had, have been spent sitting on the back steps watching a comical fledgling magpie demanding worms from its over-worked dad.
Australian Magpie (Cracticus tibicen) – fledgling
1/1000, f/5.6, ISO 1600
Such a scruffy little bird! I love the muddle of plumage it has at the moment with plenty of its baby down still on show. Its fluffy bloomers and pigeon-toed stance make me smile, and I am intrigued by the lightly fringed feathers coming through on its underparts as the adult birds don’t share this detail.
Australian Magpie (Cracticus tibicen) – male
1/1600, f/7.1, ISO 400
Every time I’ve watched this little family the female has been foraging quietly by herself while the male, above, strives to feed himself and his offspring. Adult magpies have red eyes, unlike their brown-eyed babies.
In the image above, the dad has a dazed expression as he peers at the ground ready to dive towards anything that moves. While I’ve been watching he has caught a range of critters, but mainly worms.
Australian Magpie (Cracticus tibicen) – fledgling
1/1000, f/6.3, ISO 1600
The juvenile occasionally attempts to forage for itself by looking curiously at the ground. I saw it catch what may have been its very first worm. It was the tiniest worm I’ve ever seen and the baby maggie was so shocked by the experience that it dropped it and walked away looking very puzzled. I could watch these funny birds for hours.
Happy birding, Kim
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Exhibition closes soon! It’s exciting to see red dots continuing to blossom on the images, and to meet many interesting visitors to the gallery – my thanks to everyone for the wonderful feedback, sharing the beauty of our birdlife has been more fun than I could have imagined.
Where: Mont de Lancey Historic Homestead, 71 Wellington Road, Wandin North 03 5964 2088
When: until Sunday 11 December 2016 – open Wednesdays to Sundays, 10am – 4pm
This is one fuzzy baby! Our magpies are not nearly as pretty and honestly not a bird I care for much. I know I’m really not a very impartial bird watcher – haha.
I’ll have to look up your magpies; you’ve got me wondering if they are more like the European version.
Bloody beautiful shots
Thanks Pauli!
We have a family that visits our back yard every day. I love the juvenile maggie begging call. They sound like they are saying ‘please, please. PLEASE PLEASE!’ in ever-increasing desperation. We’ve seen the young roll on their backs in front of their parents, still churning out their begging call ‘Please feed me, I’m dying! Look I died!’ Those poor, poor parents.
That’s hilarious Michelle! When I was watching Little Scruff today I could definitely hear the ‘please, please, pleeeeeeeeeease’ which only stopped for the brief nano-second of swallowing, he didn’t get as dramatic as your little guys though, so funny 🙂
Wonderful images of this little scruff, Kim.
Thank you Neil. I was watching ‘Little Scruff’ again today, it’s such a funny little character
Gorgeous pics Kim, they are wonderfully intelligent birds and goes without saying, beautiful carollers.
Thanks Alison. I was watching the maggies carolling and talking today, it was fascinating to see how many of the sounds they make in their throats with their bills held still and barely open.
I love these dapper birds.
Magpies are birds of infinite charm, and their warble spells home to me.
I can remember reading (and don’t know whether it is true or not) that the parents continue to feed the young for so long because while they are fully grown their beaks have not completely hardened and they could damage them in our sun-baked soil.
That’s an interesting thought EC, whatever the reason the babies seem very happy to take advantage of the situation