Yesterday, I saw the most interesting behaviour by a pair of Willie
Wagtails. I was walking along the sports ovals near Kippax in the
northern suburbs of Canberra, when I set off a pair of Magpie-larks who
exhibited all the normal behaviour of having a nest or juvenile nearby.
That is, alarm calls and swooping behaviour. As it turned out there was
a nest about 10 metres off the ground with a nearly fully fledged
juvenile next to it, but not actually in it. While this was happening a
pair of Willie Wagtails joined in with their scolding calls. I moved on
about 10 metres so that I was no longer distressing the Magpie-larks.
The Willie Wagtails followed me and continued to scold me. I thought
that they also may have had a nest nearby, so began watching them more
closely. After a couple of minutes I obviously was considered to no
longer be a threat, as one of the birds (possibly the female) then
fluffed up its breast feathers and proceeded to move along various
branches "squatting" every so often for no more than about 1-2 seconds
at each point before moving on. All up, in the couple of minutes that I
saw this behaviour, I estimated that about 50-60 different spots were
tested including the top links of a chainlink fence!
Am I correct in believing that the bird was checking each spot as a
possible nest site? Has anyone seen similar behaviour in Willie
Wagtails or other birds.
Seen nearby were another pair of Willie Wagtails with a nest containing
at least one young. This nest was about 30 metres away from where I had
seen the previous pair of wagtails. It was close enough that I could
still see the other pair of wagtails, while watching this pair feeding
their young.
Also observed was a juvenile Olive-Backed Oriole being almost force-fed
what appeared to be a very large caterpillar by its parent. The young
bird seemed to have all sorts of trouble getting the proferred food
down, but eventually managed it.
Cheers,
==========================================================
Chris Hudson
Canberra, Australia
"There is more to life than increasing its speed" - Mahatma Ghandhi
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