Dear all,
does anyone happen to know when Duskies lay their eggs? Most
birds do so early in the morning and I had assumed Duskies did too
and didn't bother to try to pin it down while I was doing field work
on them. Now it turns out that the question of when they do it has
important implications for the mating strategies of the males - and
it may be that nocturnal laying makes better sense for the females.
The few data that I got myself and thru Birds Australia's Nest Record
Scheme all say that new eggs are always there first thing in the
morning - which would mena that they don't lay a couple of hours
after first light as a lot of birds seem too. And I am pretty
certain they don't lay during the day - the few times I have checked
mornign and night they definitely didn't. So that leaves them laying
sometime between evening and early morning - quite possibly by first
light. Most exciting - for me anyway - is that the Common Moorhen
Gallinula chloropus does indeed have an evening laying time! and the
two species are very closely related. So I am thinking that Duskies
may well lay in the night - well before dawn. But if anyone can shed
further light on this I will be most grateful.
Sean Pywell
Dept B.S. (Biological Sciences - I kid you not)
Monash University
Clayton, Victoria
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