The exquisite Sunbirds of Magnetic Island make nests in extraordinary places. They can be seen flying about examining odd spots for a nest , zooming away, coming back for a further inspection, animated twittering taking place between them.
Currently this blogger is being entertained by two Sunbirds which have taken a liking to the long light cord for the fluro in the carport outside the den . From the wildlife point of view it seems to be a desirable position -location, location- as there is a wasp nest at the top of the cord.
During the past three days the Sunbirds have regularly been swinging about on the cord and a moment ago one of them had a piece of grass in its beak and seemed intent on attaching it to the knob at the end of the cord ,indicating a start to nest building . On several occasions a bird has hovered like a Humming Bird outside Little Darwin's fetid den and peered in at the teetering piles of books, newspaper clippings, spiderwebs , files , New Zealand flag , dust .
When the screen door was deliberately left open, one of the birds flew just inside the den , hovered , and examined the cluttered neighbourhood. Later the daring bird flew right inside,did a circuit of the room and darted out.
Soon after , a wasp flew in and bumped angrily about the den and will have to be removed pronto after this goes to press .
From time to time , one of the birds examines the cord while its partner sits on the car side rear vision mirror on the driver's side watching intently , pausing now and again to admire itself in the mirror .
After an hour or so break from pecking away at this post it was discovered that the busy Sunbirds had added a piece of fibrous vegetable material daubed in what appears to be spiderwebs to the end of the cord .
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Sunbird nest dangling from a thin strand of bougainvillea .
At the nearby residence of the Queen of the Jungle, where an old Kookaburra has been taken in for some R and R , Sunbirds took a shine to a cotton garden glove which had been washed and hung on a back verandah line to dry. Repeated attempts to build a nest on the glove failed because the glove kept falling to the ground .An example of a finished nest in a precarious position is shown below, left
 Putting the finishing touches to this item, a Kookaburra was heard outside the den , Curlews began screeching , on going out to see what was wrong, our adult Curlews , with wings outstretched, were seen rush at the Kookaburra, which was on the ground , and forced it to fly away. Kookaburras are known to eat Sunbirds and by chasing it away the Curlews could be said to be protecting their little mates .
While walking along the verandah to tell my wife about all the entertaining Sunbird activities and drama going on in our menagerie , several of those large lizards munched by the Kookaburras , mentioned previously in this blog, scuttled away among potplants .
Returning to the den, it was found that by leaving the screen door open for the wasp to escape, another had flown in . |
