canberrabirds

Magpie-larks nest-building delays...

To: "Canberra Birds " <>
Subject: Magpie-larks nest-building delays...
From: Robin Hide <>
Date: Fri, 8 Nov 2019 02:17:33 +0000

Is the nest-building of Magpie-larks usually a long-drawn out affair?

 

I’ve been watching off and on since early October the activities of two pairs of Magpie-larks in neighbouring Ainslie streets  - Paterson and Campbell Streets.

 

The Paterson St nest- in a Celtis australis street tree- was well under way on the 7th of October.- with both birds ferrying wet mud from the gutter on a shed next door to us and flying constantly across our garden.

 

The half built nest looked like this on Oct 7:

 

 

They have continued working on it since - and were hard at work still this morning (8 Nov., 4 weeks later) with the nest wall a few cms taller now.

 

Over the same period, the Campbell Street pair (a bare 200 m away) have started and abandoned two nests (far left and far right in ths photo below) , and are now working on a third one -all on the same branch of a Quercus lusitanica street tree.

 

 

Is this unusually protracted?

 

Robin Hide

 

 

 

 

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