Hi Philip
Not sure i agree with your line of thinking. Birds of prey/owls chicks can sometimes end up eating their own brother/sister in the nest - there are good adaptation reasons for doing this if food scarce and sometimes not all the chick gets devoured. You would think given the risks from decaying biological material in the nest and the impact on surviving chick and the potential to attract unwanted visitors (carrion feeders) from the smell of a rotting carcass that a behaviour would have developed to clear out material like this from the nest - does anyone know if this behaviour has been observed in some birds of prey/owls ?
regards
tim
> From:
> To: ;
> Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2011 13:50:41 +1100
> Subject: [canberrabirds] dead chick
>
> Actually I suggest it may be unusual for the parents to remove the dead
> chick (apart from by eating it or feeding it to the siblings). They
> might remove it but it is not necessarily a typical thing for birds to
> do. Most birds remove egg shells from the nest and many (maybe only
> passerines?) remove droppings, but these are inevitable and the
> behaviour exists for this. Having a dead chick is not an inevitable and
> the behaviour to remove it is not that strong. I think the suggestion
> comes from thinking as a person, rather than thinking like a bird (which
> to be honest is not thinking a lot). What do others think (no
> circularity intended)?
>
> Philip
>
> -----Original Message-----From: Perkins, Harvey
> [
> Sent: Thursday, 27 January 2011 9:43 AM To: Elizabeth Compston; Canberra
> Birds Subject: RE: [canberrabirds] dead chick [SEC=UNOFFICIAL]
>
>
> The White-faced Heron chick has been dead in the nest since at least the
> evening of Monday 24 Jan.
>
> Harvey
>
>
> Harvey Perkins
> CRC Selection Rounds Section _______________________________________
> Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research
>
>
> -----Original Message-----From: Elizabeth Compston
> [ Sent: Wednesday, 26 January
> 2011 1:52 PM
> To: Canberra Birds Subject: [canberrabirds] dead chick
>
> We saw the dead wfh chick last night. Its head was hanging down
> under the nest. The parents will surely have to get rid of it as it
> will foul the nest. Will they push it through, or lift it out?
> Doubtless there will be scavengers waiting for a feast . We found a
> small fish under the nest the other day. Ants were already devouring
> it, after a very short time
>
> Elizabeth
>
>
>
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