.....mum knows best what to feed, (I hope?), look at the spider in her beak.
It was also funny to watch dad bring a tiny bug for his children, while mum had thre or more in her beak most of the time. Ah well, he could be new to the game?
Here they are:
and a bit more dog hair to make the nest comfortable
M-L
Great photos M-L,the 4th one is funny,when you see the dad carrying a tiny ant to the nest and then the mum with a huge spider (compared to the ant it is huge) that is almost as big as her beak,haha
I may be totally wrong here .. But what i have read (and observed) is that these birds travel in a small troupe. That is, Mum, Dad, and immature male offspring. It is a matriarchal society.
Mum has about 6 nests. She drives off all female offspring once they have developed to a certain point. Dad and the boys collect the, tho he not too much. The young males also mate with their mother. Dad has no problem with this, but as soon as the young males start to colour he drives them off. The strategy here being that mum can spend nearly all her time mating and nesting .. while all the boys do the hunting and gathering.
This strategy enablrs them to be so prolific, at least up here they are.
But all this nesting leaves Mum's tail feathers all awry and ruffled and that is how you identify her .. Nearly all the others are the males. I have noticed that dad is by far the most cautious only venturing into the open after the younger have ventured out first.
I don't know if this behaviour is widespread but it apoears to be up here. Tho I have a large block of land out at the front entrance I keep it mowed .. Haa .. A small vanity considering that my block is over a kilometre long .. But as soon as I finish mowing I race back to the shack, quickly make the thermos of coffee .. An straight back to the front .. Because every time I mow these little wrens are the first out onto the new mown .. Always the immatures first, followed cautiously by Dad. At the first alarm, false or not, Dad is always the first back into the lantana .. Haa ... So funny .. I love watching them.
It may be that the one with the spider in you beautifully detailed photos is an immature male ? Mum is normally pretty scraggly looking and spends most of her time going from nest to nest while the hunt around whatever nest she is on at the moment. I very rarely see Mum, and am not really sure that I have ever seen her at all.
I could easily have all this arse up with care because id Dad was not black and blue I would not even know him .. Haa
Cool bananas ... Greg (apologies for spelling .. Tiny little iPhone and I am pecking away with a thumb like a hammer)
Hi there, I have to say, I know a lot about wrens, I have followed several pairs in my garden for years. On most accounts you are compleately off track. I don't even know where to start.
I start with <about 6 nests> , I have several couples on my property. I have watched the female in all of the photos I posted in the last few weeks, most of the day. I followed them from when she started to build the nest (I posted photos of it), to when she laid the two eggs, sat on them non stop untill they hatched. The male was in his colours for a long time before, there are several other males around. But because I have a large property with favourable habitat, they don't even get into territorial fights.In the meantime she is flat off her feet bringing in food, so is he. She would mate with other males to ensure strong and healthy offspring. But she cannot sit on several nests at the same time.
Yes they are in large groups, and the female and male look identical until the males change into their breeding plumage.
What do you mean by<Mum's tailfeathers are ruffled. Please look at all the many photos I posted of mum feeding, I do NOT see ruffled feathers, sorry.
And,what do you mean by<dad is far more cautious>?
But you top it all off by saying:<that the one in my photo with the spider is an immature male>?
I absolutely resent that, and am quite offended by the suggestion I might not be able to tell the difference. I have documented Superb Fairy Wrens for years, taken at least 400 photos of their behaviour. I took those photos of the female sitting on the nest, while the male was sitting on the fence. Trust me, IT IS THE FEMALE FEEDING her young with a spider. The other photo of the male was taken at the same time, seconds later, of the male bringing food to the nest.
I won't even bother with the rest you are saying, I have done a lot of research on wrens over the years, trust me, I know what a male and a female are doing and look like.
I will go ouside now, and take some more photos of the one species of birds I know a lot about.
M-L
Here is the female, the mother of the tiny ones, the one that sat, and still sits on the nest, if she isn't out there catching food. No ruffled feathers and certainly not shaggy looking.
M-L
just for you Greg, here is the mother wren (still the unruffled and non shaggy female), only five minutes ago. I even saw her babies, it won't be long before they will come out of the nest. The parents are feeding without even taking a break, how would they do it looking after 6 nests?( If that is what you are suggesting?)
But, isn't she beautiful??
M-L
Greg, you wrote:
Mum is normally pretty scraggly looking and spends most of her time " going from nest to nest while the hunt around whatever nest she is on at the moment." I very rarely see Mum, and am not really sure that I have ever seen her at all.
my answer to that is:
I have not seen her go anywhere in the last week, first she sat on the eggs, constantly, only getting up to feed herself,or stretch her wings. Now she has her beak full , catching insects, and so does he.
Then you say:
I could easily have all this arse up with care because id Dad was not black and blue I would not even know him .. Haa
What are you saying here?
Anyway, here is mum, (the female that sits on the nest), still almost all the time sitting on the eggs.(
No time to sit in 5 others)
M-L
Ummmmmm ... I gather I'm wrong then ? :)
No offence, I only have a little brain. I was just going from what the book. I do not have it in front of me but from memory it said that she goes from nest to nest laying while Dad and the sons bring back the food. It also said that she does so much sitting on eggs that her taIl feathers go all awry and she can be identified by this feature. As I have never seen one with feathers all awry, I doubted I had ever seen Mum.
I did not realise that I was treading roughshod over hallowed ground. Mea Culpa, Mea Maximum Culpa.
Cool bananas ... Greg :)
Hi Greg it's all good Ha. Haa cool bananas. Sorry I shouldn't laugh. But now you know your boundaries.
See it! Hear it!
Mid-North Coast NSW
You might say I have been hit with a 'wren-ch' ... So funny, I didn't realise the seriousness.
Now this next bit I volunteer, in the knowledge that it may be total balls .. ?
But evidently, Mum teaches the babies a password while they are still in the egg. She also teaches Dad. If they do not use the password on e they have hatched then she will not feed them. This strategy outwits the cuckoos who lay in her nest, because the cuckoo hatchling does not know to learn the password. Sounds clever to me ?
Ummmm ... Greg ?
My good friend Barry Filishie was on the board, that gave her the grant to do that study on wrens and the password they use. I wish I had parents like that Iam hopeless with passwords.
See it! Hear it!
Mid-North Coast NSW
Thanks so much for your support Darin, by ridiculing me. I don't think it is remotely funny . Ha Haa cool bananas.
(we all know about the "password findings", but you could run the revolutionary idea past the board that gives out grant, to do some research into the theory......the immature male feeds the young in the nest, while the female is constantly mating and produces more eggs, she then deposits in the other 5 nests....
I'm most interested in, "who the hell sits on all those eggs in 6 nests?" Unless there are more immature males doing that job?
I couldn't just not respond, and leave it in the room unchallenged. Now, have another go at me Darin.
M-L
Hi Araminta ..
ummmmmmm .... really & truly .. the fault is all mine, not Darins. I did not mean to show any disrespect, but I had no idea, indeed could not know, that you were an expert on these things and I just made an idle post regarding what I had read in my own book.
I am more than willing to stand corrected and acknowledge your greater knowledge. I did not mean to offend you at all. Just a case of where a 'fool rushed in, where angels fear to ... ummmm ... perch .... nest ?'
In any case .. here are some poor quality shots that I took of the little fellas around my place ... enjoy
Let's move on...red back wren, top looking bird, so you should get Variegated there as well
See it! Hear it!
Mid-North Coast NSW
Well ... I had to look up 'variegated'. I thought at first you were referring to a small bird that also feeds with/beside the little wrens .. this birds has stripes like a zebra. He also walks along the ground beneath the grasses a lot more than the wrens do as well .. and not scared of humans provided you don't get too close ... but still looks and behaves enough like the wrens for me to think he was one.
But it appears he is not the 'variegated'. I do not know if I have them, and may have seen but just taken for the 'blue'. I will pay more attention and try to identify with a little more accuracy. I will try to find a pic of these 'stripeys' on this site.
In another post I explained that I have watched the wrens, many times, do the following trick ....
I will certainly get a video of this behaviour, but in the meantime this is the only pic (blurred) I have of them doing it
cool bananas ... Greg
Look up Plum-headed finch they like to feed on the ground and are expert at feeding on grass stems .
See it! Hear it!
Mid-North Coast NSW
From looking on this site, the 'stripey wren' may be either:
White throated tree creeper
Double barred finch
But neither of those pictures entirely satisfy me that this is the bird I have seen. Will have to try and get some picks.
Gregf
Ok .... you are certainly some sort of genius at identification ... I tink it iz the Plum Headed Finch. Well done again !!
But I will get aphoto anyway.
cool bananas ... Greg
It's all about helping each other and a bit fun along the way. I am not an expert but after fifty years of watching nature and traveling this planet , you just start to get the hang of it .
See it! Hear it!
Mid-North Coast NSW