birding-aus

Brown Thornbill nest lining

To: Birding Aus <>
Subject: Brown Thornbill nest lining
From: Carol Probets <>
Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2007 17:12:58 +1000
Mick,

A few years ago when Brown Thornbills were building a nest in my garden, I happened to visit someone with a Persian cat and brought home a bag of its fur, which had been saved by the owner from its brushing sessions. I wedged the fur in a tree branch outside my window to see if the thornbills would be interested. Well, the next time the birds passed by, the female did a double take - her excitement was obvious. She immediately got to work gathering as much of it as possible in her bill, until she looked like she had a huge grey moustache! For the rest of the afternoon and the next day, she continued to carry beakfuls of the fur into the nest (sometimes trying to carry more than she could handle and would drop some or get it snagged on bushes... but she always meticulously collected it later).

I assume it was the female as this was the bird who did all the building (and later, incubating) while the other bird followed closely guarding her.

That particular nest was later predated by a currawong, but the following month the thornbills were back at the wrecked nest, taking out the fur lining and carrying it off down the hill to where they were obviously building another.

A valuable commodity indeed!

Cheers,

Carol

Carol Probets
Katoomba
Blue Mountains NSW



At 12:33 PM +1100 25/10/07, Michael Todd wrote:
Hello all,

The Brown Thornbill nest that I had been watching under my kitchen window (in Ranelagh, Tasmania) successfully fledged thornbillets (theres a good word) a few weeks ago. About a week ago i rescued a juvenile thornbill, that had taken a wrong turn and entered my house. It was probably from the same nest.

Yesterday, I watched Brown Thornbills pulling old material from the old nest which had become dislodged from the bush that it was in by wind. The nest was on the ground in the paddock. I had a closer look at the nest and found that it was thickly lined with the beautiful soft coppery red fur of the Tasmanian Brushtail Possum. That nest must have been warm. I imagine that the thornbills must have got this fur off a roadkill possum. This in itself is interesting as the nearest road where a possum could be killed would be a kilometre away across open paddock. I drive on that road most days and I can't remember seeing a dead brushy on it (plenty elsewhere mind you).

The fur must be a valuable commodity though as it is being re-used!

Cheers

Mick Todd




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