John,
Sure they usually nest in Eucalypts but they don’t choose
particularly well shaded or hidden sites within those trees either. Another
case of note, also in Canberra, about 25 years ago, when some of the buildings
in Woden town centre were being rebuilt, along the walkway between the main
plaza and many buildings, a pair of Magpie-larks built their nest on bare steel
scaffolding, that was being used daily by construction workers carrying
building materials and also passed by, by hundreds of people within a few
metres 5 days a week, especially during lunch times (one of whom being me). The
nest was about 3 metres above ground (the ground of course being concrete). The
site was also a bit of a wind tunnel and potentially very cold, although also
shaded by the building, from the potentially severe summer sun. When the necessary
work was finished, the contractors pulled down all the scaffolding above and
beside the nest, in both directions, leaving just enough to be stable and not
harm the nest, until a week or two later when the chicks fledged, when they
came back to collect the rest. The whole of the nest building and incubation
period and early part of the NY period, there was construction work going on. The
workers told me that this little act of kindness cost them a lot of money in
costs of extending their equipment time there. The workers collectively paid
for this rather than the construction company. I also expect that even the
thousands of office staff, only some of who would have noticed the birds (even
though in those days people were not buried in nonexistent mobile phones), seen
it from the beginning but if they didn’t at the start, it was perfectly clear
as to why some scaffolding had been left that extra week or so just to have not
disturbed the birds.
Philip
From: Birding-Aus
[ On Behalf Of calyptorhynchus
Sent: Thursday, 10 September, 2020 9:09 AM
To: Canberra Birds; <>
Subject: [Birding-Aus] Magpie Lark nesting in deciduous tree
Here in suburban Canberra we have Magpie Larks nesting in a
deciduous tree in our backyard.
The nest is nearing completion, but at the moment the
tree has not yet put out leaves (probably will have done so in a couple of
weeks).
In previous years they (or other ML pairs) have nested in
tall Eucalypts nearby, this is the first year they have nested here.
My question is, why built in a tree that is as yet a bare
tree. Surely they can't know it's going to leaf in a few weeks and so the shade
and protection might be better than a native tree; at the moment there is no
shade and no protection. Magpies often nest in deciduous trees, but Magpies are
more formidable than MLs and can fight off more predators. Has anyone ever seen
MLs nesting a dead native tree?
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