He chose our garden!
Australian Brush Turkey
This magnificent male started scratching around 6 weeks ago at the back of our yard, under a stand of bananas. That's after eating a whole hand of green bananas the previous month. Between turkeys, bats and possums, we really don't stand a chance when it comes to any ripe bananas for our table.
Anyway... this turkey has now built a rather impressive nest by raking up all the leaves and our garden looks perfectly neat, he has saved me a lot of work and he is really welcome.
He's been at it most days, and all day long of late. Spring has arrived overnight - as it tends to do in our subtropics- and time is of the essence... He must impress the females by building a mound that they will judge good enough to lay into. They do no nest-building at all, they have life well worked out.
This morning a potential lady friend turned up to inspect the work. The nest builder got all excited and dashed from one end of the yard to the other, climbed up and down the nest mound, dug a few small holes in it to show off the quality of the building materials, all the while his bright yellow wattle was swinging in all directions. We were most impressed by this bout of vigour. The mound seems to be the right shape, a good height, in the best location...The female had a good look around, paid no attention whatsoever to him and then just walked away... leaving us feeling awfully sorry for him, and he - well devastated and rather tired-looking.
Not to be discouraged, he then spent the entire rest of the day raking up the leaves from under the nearby mango tree. The mound gained another foot in height. After such an exhausting day he finally retired to bed in our neighbour's rainforest...
And he completely missed what happened next... A female turned up on dusk and started to dig a hole in HIS mound! She was still fussing around when it got dark. We suspect a fresh clutch of eggs is now buried deep within the nest. There's no guarantee our turkey is the father but we sure are glad that his hard work is starting to pay off.
He will spend the rest of the breeding season making sure the mound temperature is kept constant for the eggs to hatch. Several females will no doubt lay in it. He will keep checking the temperature with his beak. If it is too high, he will ventilate the mound by removing some of the detritus. If it is not warm enough, he will scoop more leaves onto it.
We look forward to the chicks hatching. They will be fending for themselves from the very start as no parent will be there to look after them and show them the ropes..
Who ever said our turkeys are brainless??!!
He chose our garden!
Australian Brush Turkey
This magnificent male started scratching around 6 weeks ago at the back of our yard, under a stand of bananas. That's after eating a whole hand of green bananas the previous month. Between turkeys, bats and possums, we really don't stand a chance when it comes to any ripe bananas for our table.
Anyway... this turkey has now built a rather impressive nest by raking up all the leaves and our garden looks perfectly neat, he has saved me a lot of work and he is really welcome.
He's been at it most days, and all day long of late. Spring has arrived overnight - as it tends to do in our subtropics- and time is of the essence... He must impress the females by building a mound that they will judge good enough to lay into. They do no nest-building at all, they have life well worked out.
This morning a potential lady friend turned up to inspect the work. The nest builder got all excited and dashed from one end of the yard to the other, climbed up and down the nest mound, dug a few small holes in it to show off the quality of the building materials, all the while his bright yellow wattle was swinging in all directions. We were most impressed by this bout of vigour. The mound seems to be the right shape, a good height, in the best location...The female had a good look around, paid no attention whatsoever to him and then just walked away... leaving us feeling awfully sorry for him, and he - well devastated and rather tired-looking.
Not to be discouraged, he then spent the entire rest of the day raking up the leaves from under the nearby mango tree. The mound gained another foot in height. After such an exhausting day he finally retired to bed in our neighbour's rainforest...
And he completely missed what happened next... A female turned up on dusk and started to dig a hole in HIS mound! She was still fussing around when it got dark. We suspect a fresh clutch of eggs is now buried deep within the nest. There's no guarantee our turkey is the father but we sure are glad that his hard work is starting to pay off.
He will spend the rest of the breeding season making sure the mound temperature is kept constant for the eggs to hatch. Several females will no doubt lay in it. He will keep checking the temperature with his beak. If it is too high, he will ventilate the mound by removing some of the detritus. If it is not warm enough, he will scoop more leaves onto it.
We look forward to the chicks hatching. They will be fending for themselves from the very start as no parent will be there to look after them and show them the ropes..
Who ever said our turkeys are brainless??!!