Baby birds now??

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Araminta
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Baby birds now??

I just followed the sound of baby birds begging for food. Then I found them, two baby "Golden Whistlers", there were right infront of me! I ran inside to get my husband's camera, (someone broke mine,LOL), but as walways, when I came back my dog had chassed them away. They will be back, I heard them yesterday aswell. Question: is it normal for them to have young this time of the year , it is very cold down here?? I was certainly surprised . What do you think??

sparrow
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Only a couple of weeks ago I saw fledgling fairy wrens at the edge of a lake in the Grampians and its really cold here i think all the water and insects (food) has kept then breeding the weather has turned really nasty so i hope they can survive

petergarylegg
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This is the breeding season, I have just bred Rainbow Lorikeets, they have young in the nesting box, I will remove them next week & hand raise them so that they will be tame.

Woko
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Araminta, in the Mt Lofty Ranges we had much higher than usual rainfall in Feb & March followed by an explosion of bird & other wildlife. There was also unusual flowering of a number of plants. E.g, scarlet bottlebrush has been flowering since April. It usually begins flowering here in late September. There was unusual breeding of brown falcons, New Holland honeyeaters & several other species. So I'm wondering if any out of the ordinary seasonal event has occurred where you are that might account for the golden whistler breeding which, I understand, is normally from about Aug to Jan.

Araminta
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Thanks for responding Woko,you are spot on here, in our garden we have noticed trees and shrubs flowering a lot earlier. Even last year.( some European trees flowered so early, they died.Not that we mind, we got rid of most anyway, to go all native!) You are right, the scarlet bottlebrushes are flowering here aswell!I have noticed increase in smaller birds at my place after the big fires. I put it down to more vigorous groth in understorage, that provides more protection for little birds? I have never seen that many wrens at my place before!(fantastic!)And we had more New Holland honeyeaters aswell. Not sure though if the young will survive this harsh winter.As we all know, birds do get it wrong from time to time.

M-L

birdie
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I have also seen what I thought was out of season nesting type behaviour up here Araminta ...nearly got scalped by a noisy miner the other day, and the last time I was in that same spot it was because she had a nest full of babies LOL
the most unusual thing for me at the moment is that my resident catbirds..who I see every day have started howling. I think it must be a young male in the family as I have been told by Graeme Chapman that they tend to live in larger family groups , and the call is hilarious as he gets it wrong and stretches it out too far at the end...... sounds like the noisy miner brigade have caught him and choked him LOL

Anyway, my point is that I usually don't hear them till Summer but I guess he could be territory claiming. there seems to be a bit of a battle between them and some Pied Currawongs at times too. they are like stealth bombers, they sneak through the trees ...so quiet for such a large bird

Sunshine Coast Queensland

cooee
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What time of year does the acacias start to bloom? They seem to be blooming a little earlier hear or maybe It's just me.
This has been a great year for wrens and finches. Went for a walk today and saw a small flock of double barred finches, a first for me. Red browed finches are also in high numbers and so are wee-bills. I think I also saw a rose robin at some time but I highly doubt it.
I have noticed a lot of egrets around this year. Maybe the high rainfall has something to do with it. Normally I would never see egrets around my area but this year I have seen several.

Woko
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Hmmmm. Interesting observations Araminta, birdie & cooee. The relationship between understorey regrowth & the number of small birds is particularly pertinent, I suspect, since so many small bird species rely on understorey for protection, breeding &, probably, food.
Sparrow, you made the comment about insects. Many honeyeater species feed their young on insects until they're large enough to feed on nectar. So the good rains would have provided conditions for insect breeding which has favoured bird breeding. What a marvellously complicated world we live in!
Different acacia species flower at different times of the year, cooee. But I share your observation about some flowering earlier than usual. I think the Flinders Ranges wattle has flowered earlier than usual this year & I've noticed that for several years other species (& not just acacias) have been flowering earlier than usual. And some species are flowering longer than usual. A couple of weeks ago I noticed several dryland tea trees flowering. They usually stop flowering in about April. I seriously wonder if global warming is a factor or at least an increased level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Interesting to contemplate.

Araminta
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I do think it is "global warming", (even if certain people think it doesn't exist.LOL) The last Magnolia in our garden flowered about this time last year, far too early, it died! (we don't feel bad about removing it, now that WE don't have to kill it ourselves!)Global warming unfortunately confuses plants and birds,sadly nature always pays the price for the mistakes humans make!!!

M-L

Owen1
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Just today I saw a male Superb fairy wren in breeding colours so some of the wrens must keep breeding even now. also if you look at a few BOP breeding times such as the Wedge-tailed Eagle, they breed during the winter so it really depends on what type of bird we're talking about. Also understory is extremely important to birds as is fallen branches. I also saw a Red-capped Robin today that was using fallen branches to hunt. I will upload pics later.

Cheers, Owen.

cooee
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Interesting owen, all the male superb fairy wrens I have seen are in molt. Maybe they breed at different times in different locations.

cooee
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Interesting owen, all the male superb fairy wrens I have seen are in molt. Maybe they breed at different times in different locations.

Owen1
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I read that there is usually one 'dominant' male that stays in his breeding colours much longer than the rest and he breeds with all the females in neighbouring territory to ensure the best genes in the babies. Even if the female has a normal partner she still breeds with the dominant wren.
Some males are just born to stay in breeding colours longer so they can't pick and choose.

Cheers, Owen.

sparrow
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If you read up on the superb fairy wren the hens are the lest faithful of all birds and will mate all the males she can seriously look it up!
But back on subject today i photographed swans leading there signets across the park locals told me they wouldn't nominally see any till the end of august or early September but the floods early in the year seems to have thrown everything out of sync

Woko
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I think many bird species are quite opportunistic. It rains a lot & they take advantage by breeding. (A bit like farmers & sewing crops!) This is particularly so of inland creatures where the productivity of the landscape goes ballistic after good rains.

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