Hello everyone,
A year or so ago I was in here, asking about identification on a little bird that was visiting our newly planted yard. It was apparently quite an endangered little bird from around this area. In the past year, I have continued to grow more native plants and the trees are a little bit bigger now of course. I've stuck to my plan of natives only, and natives that were known to grow in this area mostly.
Anyway, a few weeks ago, we noticed that not just 2 of these little birds were back, but 5! Very exciting. Then even more excitement, we look into one of the Wattles and there is a birds nest with 3 tiny little eggs :-) I think the mama bird is the female of these little birds (I can't for the life of me remember their name now) 2 days ago, the eggs started hatching and it appears that all 3 eggs have hatched and the baby birds are alive and well at this stage :-)
We are keeping an eye on them and mama bird now seems to be okay with us just peering into her tiny nest a few times a day. I will see if I can post a picture of the nest. I'm not good at it, but I'll try.
Anyway, we are very happy and even they turn out just to be sparrows? We are enjoying the experience. My kids are 9 and 10 years of age and love animals and so are the perfect age for watching this whole lifecycle take place and seeing what planting native trees and bushes can do to attract local wildlife that needs us to regenerate this old farmland.
Cheers,
Therese
How exciting! It's so cool when the little birdies hatch and you have all these little balls of feathers trying to fly...I love having birds nest around here and I get really excited when one does, especially if they're at eye level.
M.M.
Yes, I haven't been up this close to such tiny birds since childhood. At the moment they are only about 1cm and little red wriggly things;-)
That sounds lovely. I would love to see a photo, but just take care to avoid disturbing them.
Last year, I observed a weebill nest fo a few weeks and this year a tawny frogmouth and magpie-lark, and its always exciting, and a great experience for you and your children.
Ryu
Canberra
Aiming for DSLR-quality shots with a bridge camera
That's marvellous, Therese, especially if that's an endangered species or, at least, rare for your area. I'll be most interested to learn of the species.
As HelloBirdy implies, close observation of nesting events can be risky as many birds will abandon their nests if disturbed. Best observe with binoculars from the back verandah or wherever. Nevertheless, your family seems to be doing well.
I'm not sure I'd be so welcoming of House Sparrows. They are outrageously successful in competing with our native see-eating birds such as finches & firetails. However, their nest is a ragged, tangled mass of grass & feathers so what you've got doesn't seem to House Sparrows.
Oh yes. We are being very careful and mindful of mama bird. We have not touched the nest at all. The kids understand about the mama bird flying away to try distract us and getting agitated. So we are all mindful. We are lucky in that the nest is easy to get to and just look into. Only about 1 metre off the ground. But I've also noticed, because i have to go close nearly every day to water the trees. I notice that mama is not as agitated when I'm around. She will now just sit there are watch me. So i don't think I'm upsetting her. If she gets at all upset or swooping or chirping wildly, i move away straight away.
I think it's a Scarlet Robin
What a pretty bird to have taken advantage of your work in the garden. Congradulations and well done on the choice of plants.
Ipswich Shire Eastern flanks