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Fruit-doves: Very poor breeding outcomes.

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Subject: Fruit-doves: Very poor breeding outcomes.
From: "Del Richards" <>
Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2005 11:06:39 +1000
In the upper Mowbray Valley west of Port Douglas, NQ Superb fuit-doves nested in numbers over December-January with little success.In an area of 1.5 hectares I located seven nesting pairs and there were probably others in the immediate locale.
    Of those seven nests only two went full term. One male was killed at the nest as his wing primary feathers were found underneath along with the egg. This is unusual due to the waryness of the males who do the daytime shift when brooding.
    On a second roadside nest the egg was taken on the thirteenth night of a fourteen day brooding period.
    On a third nest after a week the egg was left on the nest in sun and rain after a week. Laughing Kookaburras were feeding young nearby and didn't take this egg which we suspected may have been the case. The white fruit-dove egg would have been easy to see.
    The two successful nests were the one that were better hidden in shaded locations than the majority of the others.
    I think that the other two unsuccesful nests just didn't hold the eggs for long enough. The construction surely wouldn't pass local council specification. I firmly believe that the female says to the male "I am laying an egg tomorrow, where are we going to put it"? As a result a completed nest may have less than twenty thin twigs in it's construction!
    Also in the same area two pairs of Wompoo Fruit-doves nested and only one breeding effort produced a young. Their nesting stands a better chance as they tend to use vine tendrils in the nests which when dry hold the twigs in place.
    From the continued calling in the vicinity they all could be breeding again.
 
Del. Richards, Fine Feather Tours, Mossman, NQ.
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