LIST OF PAGES
Nest building
Second egg-laying pictures
Brooding pictures
Feeding while brooding
More brooding pictures
Hatching pictures
Defence pictures
Epitaph
A truly excellent site about these birds
Visitors since 27th September 2000:
...our story continues....
At about sunrise on the 6th day, the bird woke up at 6am and spent a good 20 minutes arranging the nest. The bird's partner was perching on the top of the box and making scrabbling noises, and singing "tsee tsee tsee - trillll" repeatedly. Our bird listened very intently to this song and responded by tapping the box from time to time.
If one looks carefully at the picture above (click on the thumbnail to see the large .jpg) one can see that the bird has imported several 10cm lengths of black cotton. This was felt to be a hazard to any forthcoming chicks, and so was carefully removed (using a ladder, and taking the front off the box with a screwdriver) during the afternoon when the birds were absent.
At about 30 minutes before sunset (local sunset 7.45pm) the bird reappeared briefly, scrabbled around for about 2 minutes, and left, revealing the single egg pictured below. These birds are commonly said to lay one egg a day for about ten days in a row.
A closer picture of the egg was taken, see below.
And shortly after the bird came in for the night and settled on the new egg
The following morning, the bird got up and made its toilet for about 20 minutes. When it departed, at about 6.20am, we saw the addition of the second egg.
As an afterthought, the bird returned after a few minutes and covered the eggs with feathers. She then departed for the whole day, not arriving back until 7.55 pm, after local sunset. Here are two eggs, covered with feathers...
The following morning, 12th April (Monday), the bird awoke at the usual time of 05.50, and spent her usual half hour tidying the nest and preening. She moved about on the nest, and listened intently for her mate from time to time...
Eventually, tired of waiting, she departed to reveal a splendid view of the third egg.
We now expect this process to continue for another week or so. Only after all the eggs are laid, according to the books, will the bird incubate them continuously. So far we have not seen the male bird enter the nest.
Monday evening it rained cold squally showers. The bird arrived an hour earlier than on Sunday (when it was finer) and came and went about 5 times, bringing more feathers and spending a long time preening and scratching under her tummy. Much rearranging of feathers around the eggs meant that they were visible from time to time...here is a closeup...
And after some time, she fluffed herself up against the cold and the picture below is in sepia, artistic licence...
The question arises, if she lays anything like the quoted clutch of 12-16 eggs (maximum) then there may not be enough area under her tummy. Does she stack them "Hexagonal Close-Packed HCP" for you solid state physicists out there) or does she keep moving about on top of the extended 1-thick layer of eggs?
(10 days after starting to build) Now the weather has become even less clement. Yesterday there were sleet showers and strong gusty winds which blew rain into the nesting box and rattled it. Our bird appeared more than usually fluffy overnight (see above) but was not deterred from laying the fifth egg. Here she is departing for her day's activities.
A close-up of the five eggs.
On the evening of the "five-egg" day (14th April 1999) the sun came out and there was much bird activity in the garden. Our bird was playing hide and seek in the bushes with her mate, and then after a bit flew up to the nestbox and took a good look and listen around....
...before diving in to inspect the eggs. These pictures were taken with an old secondhand SONY colour CCTV security camera, and recorded on video so that the exact moment could be captured later.
