Breeding season

[Marg Peachey via Canberrabirds <>]

Hi Ben,

From another perspective which may destroy all your thinking:

Unless sperm can be held in stasis by the female, and indeed it may well happen, the egg is fertilised and matures over a day or two.  A lot of energy is expended to produce the egg, which, while still developing in the female, would make it almost impossible to relocate any great distance because a) the bird is heavier and can possibly only make short flights to feed.  Birds have evolved to be as light as possible for flight.  b) The nest has to be ready to receive an egg, so there would be no time to build or renovate a nest, unless you nest in a hollow;  but even then there would be no guarantees it had not been taken by another pair.

I think biologically it would be impossible to move location once mating has occurred.

Food for thought......

kind regards,

Marg

Marg Peachey
Vice President, ACT Wildlife
p: 0450 961 530
e: m("gmail.com","margpeachey");" target="_blank">
w: www.actwildlife.net

On Sat, 29 Jan 2022 at 12:22, Ben Milbourne via Canberrabirds <> wrote:

I realize this may sound like a silly question but please hear my logic.

Many bird species relocate from their non-breeding territory to a different, more suitable location to mate ... with this distance potentially being quite distant for the abilities of that species, and indeed the habitat could even vary.

So since if this is behaviourally possible, is it also possible for some species to relocate to nest, after they've mated?

With this scenario offering 4 possible options:

a) the species' breeding and non-breeding territory is the same, they mate where they normally inhabit, but then ...

(I) nest in same location
(II) relocate to nest

b) the species relocates from it's non-breeding territory to mate and then...

(I) stays to nest
(II) relocates to a 3rd location to nest
(III) relocates to its normal territory to nest

Would expect a(I) and b(I) to be normal behavious.  But would appreciate hearing people's experience (personal or studied) of these scenarios presented.  Especially if you're aware of species within the ACT which relocate again after mating but before nesting? Indeed are their examples of this behavior in any avian species?

Cheers, Ben

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