How To Communicate With Backyard Birds: A Quick Start Guide on How To Communicate with Backyard Birds to Enhance Mutual Understanding and Friendship (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781493531523)

Gitie and Ron have been talking to the wild birds that live in the open Australian bush in Southern Queensland for over twelve years. The birds range from the big and aggressive such as crows to the small and vulnerable like thornbills. Six of the species that have formed long term friendships are considered to be amongst the top eight most aggressive birds in the country. Chief amongst them are the magpies, who are well known for attacking humans, particularly during breeding season. Yet these birds have taken Gitie and Ron to their nests, and brought their young to them, even leaving their chicks behind with their human baby-sitters, while they go off bug-hunting. Their friendship with the birds that live freely in the wild has given Ron and Gitie a special insight into bird culture, their inner natures and their emotional and social intelligence. They know over eighty wild birds by name. The birds have shown them how they communicate with each other in their families, their groups and the wider bird communities involving other species, including how they remember relationships, pass messages, negotiate territories, offer services, cooperate and collaborate with each other as well as with other animals. Above all they have shown their eagerness in forming friendships with those humans who are prepared to communicate with them and so become part of an integrated extended family and network.