I’m a Sydney Bin Chicken

Born in a tall palm tree

I don’t so know when

Time is irrelevant to thee

All I want is quality garbage

That humans throw out in rage

Or drop like a pooping cow

Near street bins that overflow

With many a rotten tomato

Left over pizza is thus a treat

That Bin Chickens love to eat 

High class gourmet rubbish

Dreaming I was the king of Egypt 

Till I lost my privileged script

Badly transcribed in Hieroglyphs 

By a blind drunk stoned carver

Becoming nearly extinct forever

Until rescued by Taronga zoo

To avoid the vanishing eternal goo

And welcome street paradise

Of bin rubbish in glorious sunrise

As we multiply like educated rats

Our species is not full of ungrats

We thank you for being careless

Though you should not be so dirty

It’s no good for the tourist industry

That comes and leaves in distress

And makes our white plumage turn grey

                 ROBERT URBANOSKI — 03 AUGUST 2026

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The Australian white ibis (Threskiornis molucca) is a misunderstood creature. Perhaps most perniciously, a widespread myth seems to hold that it is an introduced pest, rather than the Australian native that it is.

The most romantic version of the myth even turns around a kind of classical hubris narrative, twisted round on the animal: that our ridiculed bin chicken – dirty and forlorn – is actually the sacred ibis of Egyptian lore, come as an invader to our shores to live the life of a ragamuffin amid our detritus. But, while our ibises (or ibides, if you prefer the Latin third declension, which I do) are closely related to the sacred ibis, most taxonomists consider them separate species. Our local bird is no feral fowl of pharaoh’s favour, but an Aussie true blue.

But it is not a native Sydneysider, and here is where I think the ibis marketing team got stuck on the back foot. It’s tough to get established in this city if you don’t have a recognisable school on your CV, and the ibises didn’t come up through King’s, Grammar or Shore. The birds’ anatomy gives the game away – their long wading legs, featherless head and curved beak are all adapted for feeding and breeding in marshy wetlands. The ibis is Australian, but it’s a regional migrant, originally from lagoons and estuaries well north of Sydney, particularly the Macquarie Marshes in north-western NSW, its former breeding grounds.

https://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/from-nuisance-to-mascot-the-true-history-of-sydney-s-bin-chicken-20250108-p5l2ui.html

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