Bird Houses

Too cool.

 

I've always wanted to build a miniature tavern birdhouse to see if it would fill up with shitbirds like a real tavern.

 

A few months ago I wrote about the Pardalotes that had nested (in a tunnel in the ground) in the backyard in 2012.

In the back yard here there is a tin garden shed on a concrete pad/slab. In late September 2024 we noticed that something had been digging under the slab and I thought it could be a rat. One day in early October I was several metres away from the shed/slab when something flashed past me. Later that day I put 2 and 2 together: the Pardalotes might be here again, and they were! They were entering the hole under the slab with bits of grass in their beaks and lined the tunnel with the grass, not right from the entrance but from a few inches in. I spent far too much time watching them come and go, sometimes using a broom to ward off the Wattle Birds and Noisy Miners (both native species) from chasing them.

The Pardalotes had two or three flight paths when leaving the tunnel and when coming back, they would typically land in a tree, transition to a shrub next to the shed, then enter the tunnel, sometimes after up to 5 minutes in the shrub.

By 14 November I could hear chicks beeping. Once when the adults were both out I could see, with a torch, two chicks at the far end of the tunnel (perhaps 12 inches long).

There were two instances when, being chased by Wattle Birds, they hit glass windows and were stunned, on the ground. The first time this happened I took the Pardalote to a vet but it got out of a small hole in the shoe box just before I got to the vet. It flew up and into a tree and I thought it wouldn't be able to get get back to the nest, about 1.5 miles away. But after two or three days I was very happy to see that there were two adults coming and going.

There was another chase and collision with the glass but again, after a day or so there were two adults there again.

One day when it was getting warm, I filled a green, plastic milk bottle top with water and placed it in the soil just outside the entrance. The first bird to pass it on the way in baulked for a moment before entering the tunnel and I am pretty sure that one of them took a sip on their way out, but I thought I might be interfering with nature and took it away.

On 27 November there was a lot of activity in the trees in the back yard. It wasn't until later in the afternoon that I realised the activity was because the chicks had left the nest - confirmed by a peek inside the tunnel.

I see Pardalotes in a nearby tree fairly often, from where I think they could spot the tunnel entrance. I wonder if it's the same birds and if so, will they be back later this year?

First pic is one of the adults outside the entrance before going in; second pic is of the first crash victim outside the entrance, where I placed it. I gently pushed it in a bit but it came back out, before I decided to take it to the vet. It must have been in shock/disoriented. View attachment 6415011 View attachment 6415011

 

No nest story to tell here but you might like these pics of Gang Gang cockatoos in a nearby park. Male has a red head; female is all grey. First pic is of male and female adults; second is a young male. I was able to get within 3 or 4 metres to take the pics. Gang Gangs are not common, unlike Sulphur Crested cockatoos and a couple of others.

In the back yard there used to be a tall gum/eucalypt tree that Gang Gangs liked. When I could hear the small gum nuts hitting the garage roof, I knew there were Gang gangs feeding up above, extracting the gum nut seeds. If I had the space I would plant some of those trees.

 

In the back yard today, near the tunnel/nest that the pardalotes used last year and there was a quick grey flash of a small bird from the tunnel/nest area ....

 

Bringing this back up. I have the third batch of wrens in my latest house on the porch. A friend built log houses for wrens as a retirement project. He died a few weeks after I bought this house and it is being very successful.