We found this egg on the ground. It had been slightly punctured and the egg was empty. Does anyone know what bird it would belong to, or if there is a website that helps with id of bird eggs?
The egg is about 3cm long by 2 cm at its widest point. It has brown and grey flecks on it.
It would help if I actually posted the picture:
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5007/5228363507_1fb1a6fa7f_z.jpg
It's obviously late :-) I'll try that again
Gidday Edward, was it under a tree/bush ? Did you see a nest and if so what did the nest look like?
In any case mate it looks like a common house sparrow egg to me
Very good image by the way
Hi Tassie,
Thanks for your reply.
It was under a wattle tree, but given the amount of rain we've had it could have washed down from elsewhere. Had a look for the nest but couldn't find it. Not much help, I guess.
We don't see house sparrows out here (we are about 12k from Kilmore, Vic) in bushland, and we found the egg in amongst the forest...so would be surprised if it was a sparrow egg.
Sorry mate you are 100% right, sparrow eggs have a pale bue as a base colour, I would be more inclined to be thinking aong the lines of honeyeaters alot of honeyeater eggs are are a pale pink colour with those same coloured flecks as you have there, I will keep ooking for you and see if I narrow it down some more
Thanks Tassie,
We know of at least 3 honeyeaters that visit our place, so it could well be one of these. (white naped, white cheeked & yellow faced)
What resource are you using for identifying the eggs?
It would be interesting to know who is breeding in that area of our forest (or at least trying to breed).
Sorry mate I just re-read my last post and realized it looks a bit strange, I have to copy and paste the letter "l" as I have no "l" key and sometimes I forget.
Righto, about the Birds, all of the Honeyeaters you mentioned have roughly the same coloured and same size eggs.
The White Cheeked egg size is approx 21mm x 15mm
White Naped is approx 18mm x 14mm
Yellow Faced is approx 21mm x 14mm
The White Naped is the only one of these 3 that has grey streaks in its eggs the other 2 only have red and brown.
The White Naped and the Yellow Face both like to nest in the outer foliage of Eucalypt trees anywhere from 5-20m off the ground where as the White Cheeked prefers low dense foliage.
Mate not having seen the type of country you found the egg in and given that these 3 are in their breeding season at the moment I will go with the White Naped Honeyeater.
Answering your previous question I use the Readers Digest "Complete book of Australian Birds" as my principal source of information. I have many books but this would be the best one for all round information, I recieved my first one when I was about 10 and I bought an updated edition in 1988 I have not checked to see if they have revised it again as I have not worn this one out yet.
I hope this helps.
Thanks Tassie,hope you are well,you have just given me an idea about what I want for Christmas,the Readers Digest "Complete Book of Australian Birds"! (That, and a Generator please, for when the power fails,that's not to much to ask for,dear Santa??)
M-L
Good onya Araminta,you will not regret buying that book,as for the generator I am hearing you there it was a generator that kept us going for over a week last wet season when the Cyclone hit us, would have been buggered without it
Thanks Tassie - my Dad actually has that book so I will see if we can borrow it.
The white naped is sounding like a good possibility. The area has an eucalypt canopy and acacia understory (dry sclerophyll forest) and we do see them regularly in this area.
Araminta, If you are on good terms with Santa can you get him to get a generator for us as well. The power is pretty unreliable at the best of times. Readers Digest Australia (readersdigest.com.au and go to the book shop) has the book on sale for $14 + postage. We have never used the site, so can't vouch for it. Let us know if you can't find it.
Gidday Edward, when I read your post about the price of the book I was sure you had the wrong book as mine cost me $70.00.
It is the same book and that price is so cheap I cant believe it, in fact I am going to buy another one.
Finally got our book today. It seems they went out of stock just after putting our order in. Looks like I should have placed the order before letting everyone else know :)
I'll have a look in Morecombe's bigger book as it has eggs. I have a photo of Yellow-faced Honeyeater eggs here and the above image (Edward's) is not one of those, but could well be another Aussie species. :)
http://amatteroflight.com/gallery2/d/4457-1/Yellow-faced-Honeyeater-20101003_7289.jpg
Thanks Windhover. Our photo does look like it is a different egg. Will be very interested to know what you can find out.
As far as i know they haven't updated the readers digest book second edition since 1988 but it has been reprinted a few times and they changed some of the photos,i have seen copies of the first edition on line for as little as $12 the only difference i can see is the cover is not printed,a bargain in anyone's language. (i have both)