The apostlebird shares its supper
MANY years ago, I spent some time with my young family on a sheep station near Broken Hill.
One of the birds we saw there was the apostlebird, or “lousy jack” as the stationowners called them.
They are grey birds, about the size of a magpie-lark with which they share one feature — both build mud nests. But there the similarity ends.
Apostlebirds gain their name from the belief they live in groups of 12, although about nine or 10 is usual.
They are sociable birds, spending most of their time on the ground where they share any food they find.
They undertake mutual preening, and when they drink they do so as a group.
At night, they cuddle up on the one branch to sleep.
Apostlebirds are found in much of the dry country from northern Victoria through inland NSW to Queensland and the Northern Territory.
While they do not frequent our part of the country, there is one intriguing record of long ago that suggests they may once have done so.
William Shaw was a prominent member of the first Geelong Field Naturalists Club that flourished from the 1880s to 1932. He was proprietor of a shop listed in advertisements as a “china emporium” situated in Ryrie St.
In the July 1902 issue of The Wombat, a journal published by the Geelong FNC and Gordon Technical College, there is a list of birds Shaw collected.
Among them is an apostlebird, collected “near Steiglitz”. Perhaps it was an error in identification or misnamed.
Shaw had a wonderful collection, some of which remains at the Melbourne Museum.
The “W. Shaw collection” contains 23 specimens, but not the missing apostlebird. Wildlife information and questions can be sent to ppescott@gmail.com