What's your favourite Australian native animal sound? You can vote on it below.

[onetrack]

As part of National Science Week, the ABC is holding an informal poll on what Australians consider their favourite native Australian animal sound.

 

I would've re-written the request as, "what native animal sound is most representative to you, of Australia?" - because I believe that's what the question really should be. But anyway, the poll question is, "What is your favourite animal sound?"

 

When I hear animal sounds that are distinctively Australian, it reminds me that we have some of the most distinctive animals, and the sounds they make, on the planet. 

 

For example, other nations have ravens - but the Australian raven has a different call to other nations ravens - and anytime I hear that long, low, draawn-out, "aaaaaarrrrrrrrrkkkkkk-kkkk-kkkkk", I immediately think, "that noise is as Australian as you can get!"

 

However our magpie is also certainly right up there with the most distinctive Australian animal sound. I voted for the raven, because I admire their cheekiness, cleverness, cunning, and intelligence - as well as their large repertoire of calls.

 

The experts claim the magpies have the biggest range of calls, but I'm not so sure, I reckon the ravens have an equally large range of calls, it's just that I believe the magpie sounds more melodious, to most of us.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2023-07-31/australia-favourite-animal-sounds/102577008

[willedoo]

onetrack, I'm with you on the ravens. As said, the sound is very Australian and ever present due to their distribution. Ravens are a big part of my day to day life, having been adopted by a breeding pair some years ago. Since that time, I've learned a lot about them through personal observation and reading up on them. Once you get to know them they are a very nice bird and very different from the torresian crows. They are a very friendly, peaceful bird and way, way, smarter than the aggressive by nature torresian crows.

 

It's an end of an era here. The breeding pair are getting to the end of their lifespan and have handed their territory (also my place) over to their son from last year's brood. Normally, the young from last year would be gone by now to make way for their parent's new brood, but this one (named Junior) has stuck around and it's obvious a succession plan is being enacted. It's been very lively for a couple of months as the murder of torresian crows have been trying to take advantage of the situation to expand their territory and have been doing regular noisy raids. Junior is only going on 12 months old, but he's already smarter than the total murder of torresian crows combined. When they come raiding, he knows to hide while I chase them away. He's shaping up to be as smart as his dad for sure. He's figured out that if he want's to get my attention when I'm inside the house, he walks up and down the length of the tin verandah roof until I come out to see him. He knows that I know he's the only one that does that. Walking is a very recognisable raven trait. They tend to walk rather than hop.

 

You don't really train a raven; it's more accurate to say you train each other to achieve a common goal. Repetition is the key to it. Ravens, like all crows, are by nature very cautious and are not risk takers, so it takes some time to gain their trust. I think the process is helped by the friendly nature of ravens, and I guess it would be very difficult to get the same results with a torresian crow due to their aggressive nature. I've already got a head start with Junior as he was born here and has been familiar with me since he first flew from the nest. On the other hand, I first met his father as an adult raven, so it took a lot longer to gain trust. The fact that Junior seems to be staying permanently rather than leaving to join a murder tells me he will be a breeder. I'd say also that his parents have handed down their patch on that understanding. They don't breed until around three years of age, so I've got a single teenager on my hands for a while yet. The good thing is, they mate with one partner for life and it's often entertaining watching them sitting on a tree branch side by side preening each other. The male raven in a breeding pair is a very devoted husband and father and they put their family before themselves every time. They stand guard while the wife and kids eat, and won't eat until the family has had enough. If the family is not there, they will cram their mouth full and fly off to feed them. They might do multiple return trips to the family before they finally eat for themselves.

 

The good thing about gaining the trust of ravens is that it enables you to observe their habits and lifestyle up close and personal, rather than at a distance through binoculars. Year after year, I've been able to watch them put a new brood of offspring through bootcamp. The way they train their young is very well planned and organised. They teach them all the basics, like how to forage and stash food for later. They also put them through a fairly intensive language course, teaching them all the calls and what they mean. That's amusing to watch; the family stands in a huddle and the oldies go through the vocab while the young ones try to copy them.

[rgmwa]

I voted for the Magpie based on the question asked, but I agree that the raven's call is distinctly Australian. It always makes me think of the dry and desolate outback even though we have plenty of them around here. 

[willedoo]

The kookaburra would be a popular choice.

[Old Koreelah]

Like the fish that doesn’t know about the water it’s surrounded by, some of us barely notice our wildlife until it isn’t there any more. 
I credit a niece with opening my ears to the beauty of Australia’s singing magpies. She had been living in London for over a year when she opened the video I made about my aircraft carrier. She cried with homesickness at the sounds of magpies happily warbling in the background.

 

Magpies at the top of my list; horrible, screeching, destructive cockatoos at the bottom.

[pmccarthy]

Banjo frogs.

[old man emu]

10 hours ago, Old Koreelah said:

Magpies at the top of my list; horrible, screeching, destructive cockatoos at the bottom.

I'm with you. But you have to feel sorry for the parrots. Mainly things of beauty to behold, but they were the birds that the avian choirmaster rejected.

 

I liked Bell Birds, until I found out that they are responsible for forcing other Natives from their locales. The birds defend their colony area communally and aggressively, excluding most other passerine (perching) species. They do this in order to protect their territory from other insect-eating birds that would eat the bell lerps on which they feed. Several genera of psyllids, a family of small plant-feeding insects that tend to be very

host-specific, especially among the Australian fauna, secrete coverings called "lerps" over their bodies, presumably to conceal them from predators and parasites. A lerp is a structure of crystallized honeydew produced by larvae of psyllid bugs as a protective cover

 

Whenever the local forests die back, due to increased lerp psyllid infestations, bell miners undergo a population boom.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

From the breakfast table we watch lots of species queueing up for our birdbath (if only we humans could show members of our own species such consideration and good manners). King Parrots, Green Parrots are tame as, and make lovely sounds.

 

 

[Bruce Tuncks]

I agree with old K here, except that once in Brisbane ( Morayfield) we were sitting under the verandah when a kooka came for refuge. The kooka plainly decided that the people were less of a risk than the magpies who were after him/her. I have since noticed that magpies are the bitter enemies of kookas.

[old man emu]

7 minutes ago, Bruce Tuncks said:

noticed that magpies are the bitter enemies of kookas.

I saw that just a few days ago.

[Old Koreelah]

The dynamics of bird populations on our block are too complex for my feeble brain. Sometimes we see families of finches for weeks, then it might be wrens. A gang of currawongs arrive and you never see the little fellas. Same with magpies and members of the butcherbird/ kingfisher family.

 

A few years ago it was said that a billion birds were displaced by the bushfires. They all came to our place. Our trees were loaded with strange new species fighting for territory and nesting space. A couple of times the aerial disputes got so violent that birds I’d never met took refuge near me. (That reminds me that I once had a black wallaroo blunder right past where I was working and retreat to a corner outside my shed to face the trio of dogs that had been chasing him. He must have known he’d be safer near me.)

[onetrack]

I've noticed that the birds "do the rounds" - certain groups appear for a length of time, then disappear, only to return again later. I'm not sure if it's because they get displaced by other birds or if they just move off to find some better territory that's not eaten out or full of locals who resist their intrusion. 

The New Holland honeyeaters appear here regularly in profusion, then they go away and we hardly see them for weeks. They seem to like congregating in large family groups - maybe the families split up and the kids go elsewhere.

The magpies will come around in gangs, as they nearly always do - then they'll disppear for weeks and we'll only see the odd solitary magpie - which is quite unusual, as they're groupies virtually all the time.

The only ones that seem to be omnipresent are the Red Wattle birds (the biggest of Australia's honey eaters). They're very aggressive, they chase away all other birds, but they often get the same s*** back, even from the little birds.

We have a couple of big Red Wattle birds that bathe regularly in our birdbath, outside the office window. They hop out of the water, shake themselves vigorously, and clap their beak mandibles together with a very loud, CLACK! - CLACK!

I have no idea why they do this. Usually, it's this loud "clacking" that alerts us to their presence in the bath. Here's the NH honeyeaters having a family party.

 

 

[old man emu]

Due to this conversation, I'm noticing the bird population at my place. Being in the middle of a paddock, and within view of a water trough for the horses, I can see the comings and goings of the birds. I have noticed a change in the species who arrive for a nibbles and drinks. It seems that it is the birds who live in flocks, like sulphur-crested cockatoos, galahs, finches and Twelve Apostles which are the ones who come and go. There is a pair of Magpies whose territory includes my place, and I often see a pair of hawks at the same place along the road into town.