Exploring Pigeon Valley: Speckled Mousebirds

This is the 114th article in an ongoing series that highlights the riches of Pigeon Valley, the urban nature reserve in the heart of Glenwood. The focus of this article is on Speckled Mousebirds.

We are so familiar with these Mousebirds in suburban areas that birdwatchers tend to gloss over them and writers of column like this ignore them for a long time, resulting in what I think is the disapproval of me by the two in the photo. They have a striking appearance, but their tsee-tsee calls rapidly become part of the background blur of calls unless you listen out for them.

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Despite their long tails, they creep through thick foliage with ease. As anyone who has a papaya tree knows, they are fruit eaters, but I often see them eating the leaves of such trees as Bauhinia tomentosa with evident relish. Potentially, we could get their relatives, the Red-faced Mousebirds, visiting this area. A difference that is immediately evident is that the Speckled Mousebirds move individually, while the Red Mousebirds fly as a flock.

Along the tracks of Pigeon Valley you may notice small hollows in the earth, and you will often see these birds fly up from them. They are great sand-bathers, settling in these hollows, where they coat their feathers thoroughly with sand before shaking themselves off and preening – working with their bill through the feathers to smoothe them out and remove parasites, and lubricating them.

Also read: Exploring Pigeon Valley: Male Black Cuckooshrike

Sand-bathing serves to remove excess oil from their feathers, to get rid of some of the parasites on feathers, and to remove dry skin. Think of it as the skin exfoliation you may get from beauty treatment. I have not yet attempted to mimic this practice.

Crispin Hemson chairs the Friends of Pigeon Valley, a group that undertakes clearing of alien plants, keeps records of bird and mammal sightings and alerts management to any problems.

The Friends have a monthly walk at 7.30am on the second Saturday of each month. Email: friendsofpigeonvalley1@gmail.com.

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