canberrabirds

Crested Pigeons nesting (?) in Beach Place, Holt.

To: "Canberra Birds" <>
Subject: Crested Pigeons nesting (?) in Beach Place, Holt.
From: "John Layton" <>
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 2010 15:28:48 +1100

I’ve suspected that Crested Pigeons were breeding near our place for some time. Often, particularly after rain, courtship displays are common and calling seems ongoing. During foggy winter days their resonant ooming, whooping calls add an ethereal quality to the brick veneer ambience of West Belconnen. A couple of weeks ago a pair carried on with a lengthy courtship interlude right outside the lounge room window and continued through with the coupling which, compared to many lickitysplit avian liaisons, was a rather unhurried affair of about 15 seconds A few days later I noticed a Crested Pigeon carrying twigs into a street tree, but try as we did we couldn’t see where the nest was.

 

This morning I found a tiny fledgling dead on the grass beneath our street tree. I believe it had only recently fledged. HANZAB states that fledgling occurs at 15 days and after 15 -16 days they begin to sit on twigs near nest returning to nest at night. Three to four days later they leave nest tree. Spend next few days on ground under shelter of dense growth. My guess is this little one met its fate yesterday while branch sitting during gusty winds and died in the hot sun.

 

 

John K. Layton.

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