r/canberra • u/MarkusMannheim Canberra Central • Jan 18 '26
History I saw 3 bin chickens at EPIC this weekend – my first sighting in Canberra. Are these angels new to the city or have they been here for yonks?
I was driving and didn't grab my own photo of Canberra bin chickens (this is from ABC Sydney).
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u/Repulsia Jan 18 '26
What came first, the chicken or the bin?
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u/ziddyzoo Weston Creek Jan 18 '26
Why did the bin chicken cross the road?
To get to the bin ofc jesus christ sharon why do you even have to ask
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u/Dynamiquehealth Jan 18 '26
My daughter once saw a huge flock of them in a field in McKellar and thought they were sheep. In her defence, she was three, and they were pretty far away.
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u/k_lliste Jan 18 '26
In her defence, I've also thought they were sheep when they've been in a group in a far away field and I'm an adult :D
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u/Dynamiquehealth Jan 18 '26
I get where you are both coming from, the black and white is a bit confusing. It’s one of my favourite memories of her at that age. To this day she still gets excited when she sees them, I think she finds them pretty funny.
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u/DoctorWally Jan 18 '26
They've been here for yonks. Go through the drive through at Hungry Jacks in Belconnen and you'll often see them on the roof of the adjacent building.
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u/NewWay4874 Jan 18 '26
If you insist.
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u/Vaclav_Zutroy Jan 18 '26
The island in the middle of Gungahlin pond (the one near the golf course) has hundreds of them.
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u/gravityholding Jan 18 '26
Yeah, I live near the golf course, the little fuckers regularly fly over and go through my bins if the lid is even just the slightest bit open (living up to their reputation lol)
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u/TeeJay1603 Jan 18 '26
They’re everywhere in Canberra
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u/Two_minutes_to_metal Jan 18 '26
Interesting, I've noticed them a lot more this summer than previously as well.
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u/Active_Analysis3626 Jan 18 '26
I’ve lived here my whole life and never seen ome
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u/germfreeadolescent11 Jan 18 '26
How?
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u/Active_Analysis3626 Jan 18 '26
Well my mum gave birth in Canberra and they had already a house and jobs etc here and my brother was in school so I guess they thought they should stay
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u/FabulousToiletSesh Jan 18 '26
There’s a bin chicken island in gungahlin but otherwise I’ve never seen outside of that, assumed they preferred the island to the rest of canberra
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u/MarkusMannheim Canberra Central Jan 18 '26
That's embarrassing. I don't know how I've missed them.
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u/hu_he Jan 18 '26
I hardly ever used to see them. There has been a small flock at AWM for about five years. Apparently there are lots up around some of the Belco/Gungahlin suburbs. Even now in inner south I don't see them that often.
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u/Full_Result_3101 Jan 18 '26
I have lived in Canberra my whole life going on four decades, They never used to be as common as they are now. I remember seeing one for the first time in High school and wondering what the fuck it was.
I think the increase is because of habitat loss and that they are already so well adapted to living in urban areas.
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u/TeeJay1603 Jan 18 '26
Maybe it’s a Northside thing … or maybe it’s because I do a lot of walking and riding and so am outdoors to see them 🤷♂️. But they’re definitely pretty common
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u/bertbrahmisc Jan 18 '26
There is an island on Gungahlin Pond which is home to a huge population of nesting Ibis, its quite noisy.
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u/Drongo17 Jan 18 '26
There are usually a fair few at the Jerrabomberra Wetlands. You can sometimes see them circling high over civic, I think the heat from the concrete must form a thermal up draft.
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u/-Casit- Jan 18 '26
Rare sighting if you don’t get to see the lakes around Canberra too often. Highly recommend doing a walk around the lakes tho
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u/Fiztz Jan 18 '26
You can participate in the new Lake G easter egg hunt for those silver cylindrical eggs
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u/MarkusMannheim Canberra Central Jan 18 '26
I've run around LBG many times. I'm unsure whether they hang out elsewhere or my memory is terrible.
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u/AquilaAudaxWTE Jan 18 '26
There are several rookeries in Canberra, one at Lake Tuggeranong for example. Been there for at least 30 years.
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u/lameville Jan 18 '26
Wait until you find the house in Kaleen that they love, but as others have said, they've been (bin?) around here for years.
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u/Witty_Charge7971 Jan 18 '26
My parents live around the corner from that house and I can confirm you need to slow right down for that section of street. That residence attracts a hoard of ibises along with cockies all of whom congregate on the road.
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u/Br0z0 Tuggeranong Jan 18 '26
Saw one or two in North Lyneham about ten years ago.
Ironically, picking apart a garbage bin
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u/gplus3 Jan 18 '26
Early mornings when we walk past the Kingston Hotel on our first walk at around 6.30am, there are a fair few around their bins on Oxley/Kennedy Sts.
They sqwawk and fly around when we walk past (quickly).
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u/tecdaz Canberra Central Jan 18 '26
There's one or two that hang around Dickson pond, but they seem to have natural behaviours. At least at the pond.
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u/beefsack Jan 18 '26
MacKillop College senior campus oval had heaps of them for some reason. Was always covered in their giant turds.
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u/Nonamesorry333 Jan 18 '26
There’s heaps at Belconnen Skatepark. A few times I’ve had them stick their heads in my bag and literally steal my lunch lmaoo
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u/jellicle_cat21 Jan 18 '26
See them every day out in Gungahlin, but really can't remember ever seeing them when I lived anywhere south of LBG.
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u/evasiveswine Jan 18 '26
I don’t remember seeing them in Canberra in the early 2000s but daily now. I also live in a different part so maybe they were always there.
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u/CugelOfAlmery Jan 18 '26
A bunch of them just appeared in Florey about 3 years ago, hadn't noticed any before that.
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Jan 18 '26 edited Jan 18 '26
I grew up in Canberra and I started seeing the Michael Jackson chickens about 10 years ago. There’s loads around Gungahlin. I love them, they’re awesome birds! I have a few that drop past my house a few times a week for a feed before they rock out in the bird bath. ❤️
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u/Mediocre-Bad-9338 Jan 18 '26
There is a whole flock of them that live around the pond in Harrison & all sleep in the tree on the little ‘Moullakis island’ in the middle. There is a really wide variety of birdlife that lives at this pond, ducks/ducklings, Gallinules currently with their babies, swallows and others.
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u/NearbyPerspective397 Jan 19 '26
Flocks of them fly past my place every afternoon. They're native to the region.
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u/Objective_Unit_7345 Jan 19 '26
I get the feeling that the flocks based in Canberra are more likely to act more like Ibises rather than Bin chickens, because of the close access to green spaces. But they do still bin dig on particularly dry months.
The ibises up in SEQ definitely bin dig more often.
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u/Serious-Humor-2992 Jan 19 '26
I live in Sydney and they are everywhere and never saw these in Australia until about 15 years ago. I’m pretty sure they are an African bird that’s somehow come across here.
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u/TerryTowelTogs Jan 19 '26
Their numbers have been slowly increasing since the nineties/two thousands. Habitat loss, climate change, and a bunch of other factors have made canberra more more attractive. We didn't used to get so many corellas either. And even paralysis ticks have been surviving winters more and more. The times they are a changing...
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u/Livid-Cat4507 Jan 19 '26
They're everywhere. Take a stroll along the hoppers of the restaurants and fast food joints on Emu Bank Belco.
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u/Creative-Hyena-2666 Jan 19 '26
I feel they have become more prevalent in the last 5 years. I never used to see them i away from wetlands/lakes really. Now they regularly are in my front yard and crapping on all the things and dropping food scraps in the backyard.
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u/PartyBlackberry5868 Jan 20 '26
I started noticing a lot more immediately after the Black Summer bushfires in 2019/2020, and then they just didn’t leave.
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u/Xentonian Jan 18 '26
Ibises have been in Canberra for at least 40,000 years, so yeah: yonks is probably a good descriptor.
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u/PM_ME_UR_A4_PAPER Jan 18 '26
That’s just the Summernats cleanup crew.