The Grey Butcherbirds Poem by Francis Duggan

Though his type of bird around these parts are rare
One cannot mistake him for his bubbling air
Where trees are abundant their numbers abound
Though this sparsely treed Landscape not their type of ground.

Familiar in their brown and grey colours and more so in their song
The grey butcherbirds one cannot get them wrong
At breeding times aggressive their borders they defend
They even attack humans to them none a friend.

Their nest is cup shaped of twigs on branch of a tree
In their breeding Season from July to January
The female lays three to five bluish eggs with spots of brown and red
And for most of the Spring the parent birds busy with young to be fed.

In their breeding Season they even treat their own kind as a foe
And to anyone who comes near their borders aggression they do show
The males are known to sing at anytime of the year
And their bubbling notes are quite pleasant to hear.