Last year we had a female eastern rosella and male crimson rosella breeding in a nest box in our back yard, but with only one chick being the result of this pairing.[never saw this chick out of box]
The pair have returned to the same box this year and the result is 6 chicks which are now close to leaving the box.
The photo shows 3 separate chicks of different markings, all have blue cheeks.
We are keeping a close watch on chicks as we would like to see them leave box and hopefully stay nearby for awhile.
Interesting, I wonder if this happens often.
One would think that the male crimson rosella would throw more of his colour into the offspring, but of course immature crimson rosellas are green. Some rosella sub-species are very similar so I guess they may have all been in the same family at one stage.
A week after leaving box, but still staying in trees and bushes at the bottom of our garden
A week after leaving box, but still staying in trees and bushes at the bottom of our garden
very interesting, the Eastern Rosella can also crossbreed with the Pale-headed Rosella from the north of their range
Peter
We had two young Crimson/Eastern crosses visiting us a few years ago - they looked more like Easterns except for the blue cheeks. But we suspected that their mother was the Crimson as that's what they seemed to think they were! As they grew up the blue cheeks seemed to 'fade'. Don't know what happened to them as we've never seen any since.
Great to see, well done documenting this.
Apparently offspring from this cross may even be fertile, there was one reported on eremaea Vic birdline (Tues 26 Nov), an eastern/crimson cross mated to an eastern and produced what apparently looked like an eastern.
I've watched a pairing of male Crimson and female Eastern for several months at my bird feeder in a small courtyard of my townhouse in Canberra (v close to the city). When she returned to the feeder 2-3 weeks ago after her time in the nest, there was no sign of the offspring, but it came this morning. I didnt see it but a friend reported seeing a "really odd rosella, red aNd blue but with speckledy green on the back" at the feeder, but didnt note the cheek colour. Only one offspring apparent.
when the Eastern first arrived, she was thin and bedraggled and looked quite downtrodden. As time went on and she was obviously with egg, she ate hugely at the feeder and began to look plump, sleek and happy.
Hi there Mjharker. I note that you have a bird feeder in your courtyard. For information about the pros & cons of artificial feeding of birds type <artificial feeding> in the search box near the top of this page & click on search.
Thank you Woko. Before arranging a bird feeder, I did look into all the discussions I could find, including in journals. I also looked into habitat destruction in the inner suburbs as higher density housing has moved in recently; the availability of naturally occurring food sources in the area; questions of when to put out feed and how much, plus hygiene issues and more. So it hasn't been done mindlessly or simply for human pleasure.
Ooops! Sorry, Philo. I called you Mjharker. I hope neither of you is offended!
Yes, it's always difficult to counteract the destruction of natural habitat & I can see that you've given the matter considerable thought.
Artificial feeding of birds is certainly one approach to the problem. However, hand in hand with artificial feeding there is a need for courting, breeding, loafing, socialising and protection areas for birds. Whether these can be provided artificially in a high density housing development I'm not sure. I'd be interested to hear of any efforts in this direction and the degree of success achieved. Even if such efforts were successful I'm concerned that developers would then use those successes as justification for bulldozing even more natural areas.
There are, of course, a number of strategies for providing habitat, however small, in confined areas such as pots & wall gardens. With ever-increasing human impact every little bit counts. Even then, adequate habitat for the full range of birds once inhabiting an area is unlikely ever to be achieved, hence the need to protect what natural habitat remains & to resist further human encroachment.
As can Crimson and Pale-headed Rosellas..
Cheers
Tim
Brisbane