Jim,
This might not be exactly what you want but perhaps it's worth
mentioning. Small bats sometimes roost in old nests of Yellow-throated
Scrub-wrens.
If you look in the Reader's Digest bird book you'll find as other names for
the Scrub-wren, "blacknest-bird" and "devil-bird".
Both names were, I believe, bestowed by my mother (Hilda Geissmann in the
Qld Museum book on lady collectors/naturalissts). Her family moved to
Tamborine Mountain (70km s. of Brisbane) in 1898 when she was an 8 year-old
child. The mountain was then a largely untouched superbly rich
(biologically) area. She loved birds and learnt from nature - no field
guides then. She had to give the birds names of her own devising.
Blacknest-bird is an obvious one because the nests are (were) common,
conspicuous and durable ... and black, being constructed (at least on
Tamborine) entirely of the hyphae of the horse-hair fungus (Marasmius
equicrinus).
Why devil-bird? Almost certainly because of the occasions when as a child
she checked a nest and a bat flew out (like a bat out of hell?). The other
possibility was because another occasional inhabitant was a very large spiky
cricket. Mother told me that a bat didn't worry her but to gently insert a
finger to check for eggs or babes and encounter one of these crickets gave
her feelings of the utmost revulsion and horror.
If the bat association is of use to you, bats involved are Chalinobus mario
and species of Eptesicus, but you should contact a bat expert (which I am
not) for confirmation. I got my information on their identity from Les Hall
(Dept of Anatomy?) University of Qld.
Cheers
Syd
----------
>From: "Jim Davis" <>
>To: "Birding -Aus" <>
>Subject: [BIRDING-AUS] Request for information
>Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 4:42 AM
>
> Birding - Aus members:
>
> I would once again like to tap the experience of Birding-Aus subscribers.
> Currently, I am writing an article on nesting associations between different
> species of birds and between birds and other animals. I am aware of the
> following associations:
>
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