"Stealers of Sound" sounds like a copyright issue over a pop song or illegal pirating of music.
Well the birds have been doing this for centuries apparently.
"Stealers of Sound" is a chapter in a book by the late A H(Alec) Chisholm , one of Australia's best earlier writers on birds and natural history.
The book is called "Bird Wonders" of Australia.
I have two editions. 1953(second edition), and 1952(fifth edition).
I am sure you can still pick these up in used book shops.
The chapter on this topic is talking about birds who mimic the calls of other birds.
The most well known in Australia is the Lyre Bird but many others do the same.
Chisholm wrote a wonderful book called "The Romance of the Lyrebird" where the habits and details of this bird are brilliantly written,.
Also I have written on this blog about "The Lore of the Lyrebird" by Ambrose Pratt.
The Mocking Bird overseas is famous for it's mimicry also and many other overseas birds do the same.
So here are some "stealers" that Chisholm talks about.
At the time of writing his 5th edition he claims that there were no fewer than 52 species in Australia that do this.
Below are some he mentions in the book.
The Lyrebird
The Spotted Bower Bird
The Golden Bower Bird and he says 8 species that construct bowers or "playing places" have the gift of mimicry.
The Toothbilled Catbird
Silvereye
Male Mistetoebird
Brown Thornbill
Heathwren
Yellow Throated Scrubwren
Rufous Scrub-bird
Whipbird
Olive-backed Oriole
Pied Butcher Bird
Starling(not a native bird)
I googled the subject of "Australian Birds that mimic others" and came up with the link below which also aludes to Chisholm's work.
For me, I like trying to imitate bird calls, my favourite being the Kookaburra.
I was photographing one in a park recently and I decided to do a mock call so he would turn his head and I would get a better shot.
It worked!
Alec Chisholm says the Kookaburra, in the early days of Australian settlement was called the "Giant Kingfisher" and then became the "Laughing Jackass" and the "Settlers Clock". "Kookaburra" became its widely accepted name from an Aboriginal language.
Chisholm gives 45 other Aboriginal names used by different tribes for the same bird.
He says that is not an exhaustive list.
If you want to just listen to beautiful sounds of Australian Birds go to "Listening Earth"
One of my all time(so far) favourite experiences when photographing and videoing birds was on a holiday to Echuca and Moama a few years ago. We stayed in the Moama Carvan Park which was convenient for filming the many different Paddlesteamers passing in front of our cabin on the River Murray.
It was also very close to Horseshoe Lagoon which at the time was a swampland with plenty of water.
It was abounding with birds and the highlight for me was a walk through the trails on the island, formed by the lagoon. as dusk was approaching.
Also some gentle rain was not far off.
I was using my Canon XL1 video camera which worked well in low light but was great for capturing sound also.
I know the XL1 is now superseded by other technology, but there has never been a more stylish and practical video camera in my opinion except for its 1 or 2 later upgrades.
The noise of the frogs as the rain fell in some parts was amazing.
I was standing still, more recording the sounds of frogs than doing anything else, when I sensed a bird fly past and land on a tree branch nearby.
It had been very quiet in this, much as owls make no sound in flight.
I soon realised it was a Kookaburra with his back to me so I started filming him.
After filming a few seconds he turned his head sideways and there were frog's legs dangling from his beak.
I kept filming just transfixed by the cycle of nature in front of me.
Eventually I moved on but he would have sat here for some time digesting his meal after he had eaten.
Below is that film sequence.
I have had some other encounters with Kookaburras and I will post another clip later of one in Melrose in the Southern FlindersRanges of South Australia.
