Pied Currawong Behavior Finally Explained

I finally have an answer to a question I first posed back in August of 2016. We visited the Japanese Garden in Toowoomba, QLD and spied a pair of Pied Currawongs engaged in a rather strange behavior. The original post and the the photos are found here.



I finally had time to find an Ornithology web site where I could ask a question. I received a prompt reply from Peter Murphy the Executive Director of the Bird Watching Institute in Tarban, NSW. (forwarded via Roger J Lederer who responded to my email)...

The Pied Currawong, which used to be called the Bell-Magpie, is distinctively different from the Magpie, in particular having yellow eyes compared to the Magpie's red eyes.

This said, Pied Currawongs can regularly be seen "sharing" territory with Magpies, although the Magpie is more territorial, and behaving similarly, for example they both "strut".

I know that Magpies "at play" behave like the Pied Currawongs Steve has described and photographed and therefore my best guess is that they were "playing" perhaps even "mimicking" Magpie behavior they had seen.

So. There you have it. Two Currawongs out playing on a sunny afternoon. I've never seen such a thing before and I've not been able to find any such thing on the web in the two years since I took the photos.

Mystery solved.