The Sunburnt Santa cast
The bin chicken: Australia's favourite rubbish-bin raider
Long beak, bald black head, zero shame. Has been through your bin.
The bin chicken is the Australian nickname for the Australian white ibis, a long-beaked wetland bird that has moved into the cities and learned to love a rubbish bin. In Sunburnt Santa it's the first bird you meet in Bin Chicken Blitz and the last obstacle on the road on Christmas Eve.
In the game
Day 2, Bin Chicken Blitz. Three bin chickens are already sitting in the gum tree when the round starts, and more keep landing for 60 seconds. Santa drags back his slingshot and fires Christmas puddings at them. A bin chicken is worth 100 points: it's big, it sits still for ages (10 to 14 seconds), and it's the easiest target in the tree. Magpies, galahs, cockies and lorikeets are worth more but don't hang about. Hit one and it tumbles to the lawn, sits there dazed for a moment, then flies off in a huff. No bin chickens are harmed.
Day 24, Christmas Eve Run. Once you're 500 metres into the night drive, a bin chicken can come flapping across the road at head height. This is the one thing on the road you must not jump into: stay low and let it pass.
The real animal
The Australian white ibis (Threskiornis molucca) stands 69 to 76 cm, with an almost entirely white body, a bald black head and neck, and a long, down-curved bill [1]. It naturally lives in swamps, lagoons, floodplains and grasslands, probing for crayfish, mussels and other invertebrates, but it has adapted well to parks and gardens, and some city birds now live on human food scraps [1].
A generation ago, ibis were rare in Australian cities. Drought and the loss of inland wetlands pushed them towards the coast, where our bins were waiting [2]. Australians gave them names to match ("bin chicken", "tip turkey"), and in 2017 the ibis came second in a national Bird of the Year poll, behind the magpie [2].
For all the jokes, it's a native bird and protected: in Queensland under the Nature Conservation Act 1992 [3]. The best way to live with one is to keep your bin lid shut and never feed it. Read more in why Australians call the ibis a bin chicken.
Games The bin chicken appears in
More of The bin chicken
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Sources
- Australian White Ibis, Australian Museum
- The rise of the ibis: How the 'bin chicken' became a totem for modern Australia, ABC News
- Living with wildlife, Brisbane City Council