Wow, look at that! - Fairy-wren mating shots

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Araminta
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Wow, look at that! - Fairy-wren mating shots

This afternoon I was lucky enough to witness my favourite little birds mating. Although they decided to do it on the roof, a bit far away for my camera to get sharp photos, I think the vent was so exciting , You will enjoy them.

Here are some of about 50 photos I took. Some of it was rather funny, as they were looking at themselves in the window reflections while they were mating blush

DSC04295 (2) DSC04294 (2) DSC04319 (1) DSC04286 (2) DSC04320 (1) DSC04322 (1) DSC04321 (2) DSC04335 (1) hmmmmm? DSC04365 (2) I know, lots of photos, but they tell a story. Hope you love them?

Holly
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Just gorgeous M-L! You are doing an amazing job to capture the life of these little birds, I love it!

Araminta
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Thanks Holly. Is there a time frame, when should I expect her to lay eggs? It rains today, I might not get any photos, but I have noticed that he is still around and singing, but I haven't seen her yet. Should she be sitting on the nest ?

Give me some clues Holly, what to look out for next.

M-L

Holly
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She may be busy nest-building M-L. Honestly I can't remember how long between copulation and egg-laying but I wouldn't think it would be very long (a few days to a week?). I can look in HANZAB when I am in the office on Monday (if you remind me!)

 

I think you will find this link really interesting - it goes into a lot of detail about the life of Fairy-wrens in general and covers breeding and laying. It does say that it is very difficult to observe copulation!

Araminta
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Thanks so much for the link. Most interesting, I will have to read it a few more times. Some of the display of the male , I didn't pay much attention to, I now know I have seen. One of my observations is different though. It says there,that copulation seams to be a short event. Yes, the act is very quick, but they were copulating again and again for at least 30 minutes. Later in the afternoon they even came back to the same spot.wink

M-L

Karen
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Good to see the next stage happening.  Hope you'll be able to find the nest and follow the eggs on their journey.

Karen
Brisbane southside.

Araminta
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 I'm still on a high having seen the mating a few times yesterday afternoon. As Holly said, and I read in the research about wrens, it is an event rarely seen and very difficult to observe.

I hope more of our members will have a look, thanks for looking Karen.

M-L

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