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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.

When you suffer from any sort of sleep disorder nothing else seems so important as a good night’s rest.

 We've been observing the wild birds who live freely in the trees around our home for ten years.  Many of them are our friends. We know them by name, shape, looks and habits.  They all know their names and each others' names.  They call the one we ask for, often going into the valley to find them and bring them back.

Many naturalists say that the different species don't interact with each other.  But our experience and observations tell us otherwise.  The birds have amazing friendships with birds from other species, even other animals and certainly with us humans.  They are

Different species of birds have different needs regarding access to water and plants.  The extent and diversity of their territories and feeding habits influence their visiting times.  But even more interestingly the ability to negotiate their visiting and access rights with other birds who are considered by them as the rightful owners of the territory has a major impact on their movements.

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  Communicating successfully with someone from a different species, who is not only not dependent on you, but also flies off in a flash if they don't like the sound of your voice, brings its own suite of challenges. In this series, we look at each of the five major aspects of communicating with wild birds.  These involve making them familiar with our speech patterns, listening to learn, understanding our bird's response, building trust, and allowing the friendship to develop.  In the previous issue we covered the importance of making the wild birds feel comfortable in your presence, showing them that you care about their welfare and wish to make friends.  
 
In this article we look at the art of listening to the birds.  Listening is much more than just enjoying their songs.  True listening requires us to understand the information they are trying to convey in their language to their family, community, intruders and also their friends which now hopefully includes you. 

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