Howdy All,
A neighbour of mine was telling me yesterday (and sent me a few
photos today) that he happened upon baby Eastern Spinebills leaving
the nest for the first time the other day..... He'd been pruning the
shrub their nest was in, unaware that the nest was in there, so this
may have been what precipitated their leaving the nest at that
time. The unusual things of note were that although there are
usually only a single pair of spinebills that live in his garden
there were around 10 adults all gathered to feed the babies
constantly after they left the nest (there were 3 babies). He'd
never seen anything more than the pair of them before. Is this
gathering and feeding behaviour normal when babies leave the nest?
The second unusual thing of note is that a White-plumed honeyeater
was helping with feeding the babies. He didn't know what bird it
was, but he got a photo of it so there is definitely no doubt as to
what it was. It fed babies a number of times during the hour he was
watching them, along with the 10 or so adult spinebills. Is this
also usual behaviour..... for different species to feed the young of
others? I recall reference on the list recently to the fact that
certain babies have a call that seems to attract any receptive adult
bird nearby, even if a different species, so I am wondering whether
this was what happened in this event?
Any comments or insights would be appreciated. Thanks in anticipation.
Cheers.
Paul T.
Higgins, ACT
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