Yes. The Mb (f) is carrying a piece of stuff. This sort of thing is said to be used to decorate the nest. HANZAB says ‘coated or decorated outside …with castings and remains of insect larvae’. There is a point or two to be made here. The beginning of the nest in question was mainly a collection of wool bound with spider web, with the cavity not yet excavated. The material collected already includes many items including insect remains, all presumably gathered up with the silk. The main item is clumps of a kind of granular substance that I have seen in webs. There is a question what it is. It does not appear to be ‘remains’. I am not sure what ‘castings’ are, although I know about ‘worm castings’. (You will get something quite different if you Google ‘Caterpillar castings’.) I do not think captured flying insects would be leaving excrement in a spider web. There is a study (below) that indicates that some spiders gather ‘prey remains’ that look a bit like the granular substance. I wonder if the substance is spider excrement. Why mistletoe birds would want to gather it for a nest is another matter.
The male Mb is said not to be a usual participant in the nest building. That does not exclude offering of services in a supervisory capacity, of course.
From: Mark Clayton [
Sent: Tuesday, 7 October 2014 10:42 AM
To: 'Geoffrey Dabb';
Subject: RE: [canberrabirds] Also seen at C Park yesterday
Mistletoebird nest building (female that is). I meant to also reply with the Shining Bronze-Cuckoo photo but with 70+ emails to go through after the long weekend I forgot.
Mark
An astute piece of jumping in, John, and quite correct. I tend to forget the tradition of the WOTSIT might not be appreciated by our younger members. It began in pre-digital days when Mark Clayton used to collect cryptic images, such as a dark shape disappearing into the sky at dusk, to administer in the occasional Bird Quiz. With digital photography ‘collecting’ became unnecessary as the clearest image can be cropped or otherwise processed to produce a totally baffling product. Therefore WOTSITS must be used with extreme care, and be, like clues in the best cryptic crosswords, FAIR (however difficult). If possible, a WOTSIT should match something in a person’s visual experience, even if not at once recognisable. There was a little story attached to the SBC. Its call, yesterday morning, was from near at hand, but the bird was invisible until located directly overhead at the top of a euc where its size and shape from below matched the dark leaves surrounding it. When calling these small cuckoos are often like that
As there is not much appetite these days for the formal chatline quiz, with these occasional WOTSITS you can tell me what you think it is, if you like, or just keep the answer to yourself. A couple of others got it, including a well-known member at his Darwin outpost.
Now, not all that cryptic, but something else that was going on yesterday, if you know what it is …
Only just realised this is a question. Well someone has to jump in. A Shining Bronze Cuckoo for my money.
Some on Percival Hill at the moment.
