this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2023
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This guy has been hanging around for a couple of days, and yesterday, he came up and ate from our hands. That was unexpected!
Image descriptions: 3 different images of a kookaburra sitting on a wooden railing being hand fed pastrami
Love kookaburras when they fluff their face up like that. Such friendly birds that could peck your eye out if they wanted
I don't want to be "that guy", but I'm gonna be... You shouldn't feed birds. For a bit of a once-off novelty I'm sure no harm done, but processed meats are really bad for them. There's also the issue of reliance on humans, increase in bird population, etc.
Leaving water out is a great idea though. Your balcony looks like a pretty sweet spot to throw a bird bath which will still attract plenty of birds without the potential feeding side effects. Shallow and wide is best cause they like to be able to see the bottom. Heaps of options on Amazon/eBay etc, or just make your own!
I stuck one on an old tree stump and went a bit stupid... Stuck an undergravel filter from a fish tank, lined the bottom with gravel to make it shallower, then used a solar air pump and a riser made out of PVC to create a nice little filtration system for it. Works awesome and there's always birds hanging around it. Water stays crystal clear instead of the algae it used to grow because water + sun + organic material = algae usually. Here's an old photo, the ferns have all grown up around it and there's moss everywhere around the base now. I should take an update shot.
The only reason they got processed meat is because they arrived unannounced, so we didn't have anything better. I only gave them a small amount, precisely because of the health issues with it. There will be no regular diet of processed meat for them, don't worry:)
We have a birdbath setup too, and a scrub turkey currently making a mound in our back yard. We often throw our left over veggies etc out in the backyard, and we have a constant influx of native birds.
I will continue to feed them, but with moderation and without making them reliant on us :)