Identity Crisis

Paul Hadley

If you live in a place long enough, like we have in the western Sydney suburbs of Blacktown, you get used to knowing who comes and goes in your street.

You notice the new neighbours who have kids. You’ve seen a new car coming and going in your street. You see it parked outside of the house that was up for lease. You hear the sounds of children playing in the street that weren’t heard before.

Live in a place long enough you also get used to the wildlife that comes and goes in your neighbourhood. You notice the sound of a bird call not heard before. The flight of a bird not seen before or its profile unrecognised as it perches in a tree.

Unlike the new human neighbour, identifying new wildlife can be trickier. The new bird looked like a type of Kingfisher but nothing in my Field Guide to Australian Birds matched anything like this new neighbour. The head and blood stained beak strongly suggested to me a Kingfisher type bird.

This was a real ‘Identity Crisis’ – not for the bird, I guess, but a crisis of identity for me. Frustrated by my lack of knowledge I turned to the ‘Birds in Backyards’ website and sent my question with pictures to them.

Dr Holly Parsons from the ‘Birds in Backyard’ provided the answer – our new neighbour was a Grey Butcherbird.
The bird has a beautiful song but the not-so-beautiful habit of dissecting its prey on a tree branch nearest to you. It was really exciting to have a ‘new’ bird species in our neighbourhood, nesting in a tree opposite to our home. More excitement came when four chicks hatched and successfully fledged.

Although they moved home not long after this, we still hear their call in the distance and are happy with the time we had them as neighbours.