Second addendum to my week of birds in our backyard.
When I was doing my week of birds in our backyard, I kept saying that there were two recalcitrants who hadn't shown up to have their photo taken.
One was the Noisy Miner who showed up the next day and I subsequently posted. The second was this Pied Currawong.
I posted a shot of this guy a few months ago after he started hanging around with the Kookaburras looking for a hand out and we noticed that his feet looked as if he had been standing in wet cement. We christened him Cement Foot.
After a bit of Googling, we discovered that he was suffering from Scaly Leg (or Tasslefoot) caused by the Cnemidocoptes mite which is quite painful for them and can cause them to lose their toes.
Cement Foot had been a regular visitor (up until I needed him for the photo shoot) but he is back again now. His feet have lost the cement look but they are heavily disfigured with big chunky bits appearing to grow along the leg and feet but they don't seem to be worrying him too much now.
Oh dear poor currawong, I hope he will be okay. We have a pair of currawongs that visit in summer but the last couple of years they have been feeding channel billed cuckoo chicks because the cuckoos have killed their babies and replaced their own eggs in the nest. I hate channel billed cuckoos they are such ugly nasty birds.
