Meet Steve
Steve is (was) an unfledged Australian Magpie-lark (Grallina cyanoleuca) chick that J found sitting in the gutter of a major thoroughfare on his way home from school. Not seeing a nest anywhere in sight J decided the best course of action was to bring Steve home where it became the latest in a long list of rescued animals that J had attempted to rehabilitate in his short life.
A basket/nest and a perch were quickly fashioned out of a clothes rack (pictured below) and a bag of insectivore mix found in our ‘rehab food’ supplies. Steve adapted well to hand feeding and let us know, by squawking loudly, when the next feed was expected – usually every half an hour. Luckily Steve slept through the night.
On day three we put the clothes rack outside in our very small, highly secure backyard. It only took a few hours before very loud calling announced that Mum and Dad Magpie-lark had found Steve’s location, a pretty impressive feat given the number of places Steve could have been. Over the next two weeks they proceeded to feed Steve ‘real’ insects – none of this insectivore rubbish.
One day Steve was gone – but not far. Steve is now able to fly and we often see it in the park across the road being fed by its parents. For Magpie-larks this dependence lasts for about four months.
P.S. Steve could easily be Stevie. Although it is really easy to tell a male from a female adult Magpie-lark (click HERE) it is not so easy to determine the gender of the juvenile birds. Juveniles have white eyebrow and black forehead of the male and the white throat of the female. This resolves at about four months when adult plumage appears. It makes organising a gender reveal party really difficult!
