Struth, they're lousy!

Vaughan feeding the breakfast crowd!

When I was a kid at Yowah, these birds were known as Happy Jacks, rather than their more common colloquial name of Lousy Jacks.

Of course given their constant foraging, they could also be called Hungry Jacks!

We refer to them more formally as Apostle Birds - and enjoy listening to their chatter (which you can hear via sound file at the above link). This family group usually numbered 11 but there were a few occasions when only eight or nine showed up and we did wonder what the missing guys/gals were up to! (Two of the group each had a foot issue and we discussed that also).

Although we have several bird books, I found some new information when writing this post:-

"The family group usually consists of a dominant male and female together with the progeny from recent nestings. It takes three to four years for birds to become adult. The only obvious indicator of adulthood is the eye colour - when adult the eyes are greyish with a pearly coloured outer ring. Young ones have brown eyes."

so will be studying eyes (as well as feet!) next time we are out in Happy Jack country!