Headless bird just appeared

I didn't sleep last night. At 1.00am I was up and, against my better judgement, let the cat outside. I said a quick prayer for the safe return of my cat and went about filling in the hours. The cat returned at 5.00am and I went back to bed.

With the cat sleeping away the day (he thought he was going to..) I did an errand down town at 8.00am before tidying the house. Between 9.00am and 10.00am I made a couple of visits to the outside recycle bin, situated a few steps from my front door.

A visitor arrived at 11.00am and pointed to a headless bird laying on the ground. I was annoyed that my cat had killed the bird. The ants had not yet attacked it. This was not a bird that I had seen in my garden before, this bird was not local to my area in rural NSW.

Later that day I got to thinking that something didn't feel right about my cat killing the bird. How could he catch it when he was inside asleep... and had been asleep since his breakfast at 7.30am.

I assumed that my cat had killed the bird during the night. But the bird had not been there when I was coming and going earlier that morning, I would have had to step over the body. I absolutely know that I did not step over the body because there are spiky balls on the ground from the liquid-amber tree and I watch where I am walking to avoid them. There are no other animals to kill the bird and I doubt an animal would have left the body at my front step. And the distance is too far for a neighbor to have tossed the headless body.

I googled the bird: -

The only bird endemic to NSW, the rockwarbler makes its home on the sandstone formations and rocky outcrops around Sydney. The rockwarbler is a small bird with a dark grey-brown back and wings, a pale grey throat and a rufous underside. It flicks its tail as it hops over rocks searching for insects to eat. Occasionally, rockwarblers will nest inside buildings. Size: 14cm. Call: Raspy ‘chee-cheet’ squeaking. Where to spot them: Rocky areas e.g. coastal cliffs, steep rocky gullies, outcrops within 240km of Sydney.