Thread: Willy Wagtail

They are also very good at ridding your garden of sparrows, I like them, we now have a pair that hang around our front yard.

Regards,
Tote

Haven’t had them in any place I have lived for a while , plenty of bugs about for them to eat where I am at now. Yet in the car park down the road plenty of them , as well as wrens . What gives ?

Maybe they're allergic to you??...lol

The call of these birds do sound like they are "Chattering" so the aboriginal theory seems legit.
I love the little Buggers and we have a family of them here every year.
They are also incredibly brave or just stupid because I have seen these attacking/harassing crows and butcher birds quite often.

Their nests are amazing,i have seen them built around a single telephone wire.

During the breeding season we used to watch a pair on a nest on the rafters of the veranda of the old shearers quarters on the property.

The parents would take turns on the nest.

whenever they changed shift,the incoming bird would make the Willy Wagtail call as it sat on the nest for its shift.

The parent that was not on the nest would be the guard parent and chase any other bird away.

During breeding season they are particularly noisey at night with their rat a tat type of call.

Yes, love the little buggers.

I used to have a breeding pair on the verandah of an old farm house.

At one point a cuckoo was desperately trying to get into their nest and they kept fighting it off.
Eventually after a week or so the cuckoo got lucky and laid an egg, but the Willies were too smart, tossed the eggs out, waisted several weeks and laid new ones.