Spotted pardalote in sand pile - breeding information needed

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Hi All

 

I was wondering if anyone can tell me as a general rule when spotted pardalote young generally fledge in the Canberra region? And how many young they might have? Do they have more than one brood a season? We have a pair that decided to nest in a pile of sand we are using for landscaping. They moved in around September. They are now coming and going all day everyday, so I can only assume they are keeping up the food to hungry mouths (or beaks as the case may be).

 

We have a deadline to get some landscaping done over the next couple of months, and I don't want to kick them out. Does anyone know if there is a general direction they dig the tunnel? It's a bit hard to tell, we can see approximately 15-20cm in then it gets too dark. Although we haven't tried shining a torch in, don't want to disturb them too much. What about the dimensions of the nest chamber? 

 

Perhaps we could use the sand around them first, without disturbing the nest. Its a reasonable sized sand pile. But if the young are likely to fledge in the not too distant future we could try to hold out. Any advice or ideas would be much appreciated.

 

Cheers

Suellen