Australian Brush Turkey (mound-building)

Description:

Birds behaving badly? The Australian brush turkey, aka scrub turkey or bush turkey, is a native species of megapode, or "mound builder", belonging to the family Megapodiidae. This fellow has spent all week shifting enormous amounts of mulch along the entire length of this garden (approx. 50-60 metres) for his mound, and what a mighty mess he has made. It has given me no end of pleasure to watch him do this, particularly when he has been flicking garden mulch onto the doctor's cars. Notice the cage in the last photo - someone wants this fellow gone, but I watched him for a while and he wasn't going to have a bar of it! They're not stupid, even though they play the stupid card on occasion. I think that's what they want us to think. Besides, animals are driven by instinct, and that's a different type of intelligence. For some information on the species itself, here's a previous spotting - https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/22... Also check the reference links.

Habitat:

Bamboo garden along perimeter of hospital car park. As long as there's plenty of garden mulch, leaf litter or grass clippings, a nest is always a great possibility, regardless of the area. I have seen brush turkeys actively moving mulch across a roadway. They are wonderful opportunists. In their natural habitat, they would usually inhabit rainforests and wet sclerophyll forests, but drier scrub areas will also suffice.

Notes:

It is illegal in this country to interfere with wildlife, and that includes their nests, unless you have a specific license or permit. The Queensland Government's Department of Environment and Science issues "damage mitigation permits" (DMPs) to bird relocators who can capture and relocate male brush turkeys in circumstances where it can be shown that the presence of the mound is a threat to human health and wellbeing or is causing financial loss. Unfortunately, to move one male out only leaves a vacancy for another to move in.