Hello everyone,
I am a new member to this forum. It seems to be just what I am looking for.
I have a question however. We have a bird-cam in a bird box, which has been
occupied by Eastern Rosellas. The hen is in there now.
She has laid 2 eggs in previous weeks and apparently abandoned them. The eggs were laid
on separate days and then left immediately for one or two days. The eggs aren't going
to be viable are they?
The nest box is a marine ply construction and built from instructions from the likes of
the Australian Museum. The bottom is covered in about 5-6 cms of wood shavings. Lately the
Rosella will typically take some time to scrape at the wood shavings and then settle for a
while and then fly off. No further eggs have been laid. She doesn't roost in the nest box
overnight. The eggs that were in the box would get pelted against the side of the box by her
scraping. What do people make of her behaviour?
thanks for any information
Andrew
Hmmm... interesting.
Where are you? What sort of weather have you been having?
It is possible that she is simply immature and doesn't really know what to do yet. Don't give up on her! She might lay more eggs later. It would be normal to stay in the nest overnight, unless it is particularly warm.
- soakes
soakes
Olinda, Victoria, Australia
We are in Newcastle, and its mostly been dry as the proverbial
for the last 3 months. I guess your line of reasoning might be that
there is insufficient food to sustain a growing family and that puts
the hen on edge?
It did occur to me that she might be inexperienced. She is quite
nervous sitting on the nest, and you can see she reacts quickly
to loud noises outside - loud coughing, cars hitting pot-holes.
While there has been little rain, the temperature has been fluctuating.
She has been leaving the eggs when the temperature is low - say
14 - 15 degrees overnight.
thanks for your comment
Andrew H.
Hi Andrew, I haven't observed Rosellas yet, but have had Yellow Robin nesting close to the house. After they laid eggs,they did not sit on them for a few days, then they didn't sit for long periods of time. At a later stage they did sit most of the time.Birds know how to regulate the temperature and at what stage. They also didn't sit on the nest at night, but sat within viewing distance.
Patrik
And the eggs hatched OK? From other items that I had read elsewhere, I had the
impression that the hen stayed pretty much glued to the nest for most of the day.
Thanks for the information
Andrew
Yes they did. I have observed the same with Wrens , but also Swallows, they laid one egg or two and left them for some time. Then one or two more. There might be a reason for this? Could be the earlier ones hatch earlier and will be the stronger chicks?
I'm no "chick-expert"
, too old for that, have forgotten how that worked
Patrik
I have observed the pale-headed rosellas nesting behaviour which I imagine would be similar to your eastern rosellas.
The female goes in and does scraping of the bottom of the box, she usually scrapes through the material till she reaches the hard wood surface. She then lays an egg every second day but doesnt sit on them overnight until about 3 or 4 eggs are laid then starts incubation. She may lay more eggs during this time. Incubation then starts in ernest, so the earlier eggs are still viable, they apparently dont start developing until the incubation starts, supposedly so they all hatch around the same time.
I worried too the first time I put up the nestbox and heard scratching in there and a few days later looked and found what I thought was an abandoned egg, but she did come back and continued the nesting process.
Hope this helps.
Thanks for that information. In fact the hen has settled just as you described.
She is now sitting on a clutch of six eggs, and barely moves a feather for
long periods. She occasionally goes out for a break but these are relatively
short periods, as far as I can gather.