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The strangest aspect of hamerkop behaviour is the huge nest, sometimes more than 1.5 metres (4 ft 11 in) across, comprising perhaps 10,000 sticks and strong enough to support a man's weight. The birds decorate the outside with any bright-coloured objects they can find. When possible, they build the nest in the fork of a tree, often over water, but if necessary they build on a bank, a cliff, a human-built wall or dam, or on the ground. A pair starts by making a platform of sticks held together with mud, then builds walls and a domed roof. A mud-plastered entrance 13–18 centimetres (5.1–7.1 in) wide in the bottom leads through a tunnel up to 60 centimetres (24 in) long to a nesting chamber big enough for the parents and young.
These birds are compulsive nest builders, constructing three to five nests per year whether they are breeding or not.
'Fencing Match!". Interesting behaviour, watching these these two Magpies 'having a barney'! ...Two for joy? 😊 West Yorkshire.
Many thanks for visiting my Flickr pages ...Your visits, interest, comments and kindness to 'fave' my photos is very much appreciated, Steve.
Magpie
Magpie numbers in Britain and Ireland have quadrupled in the last 35 years.
The increase has been particularly noticeable in suburban areas.
During the winter the magpie’s diet is largely vegetarian, and in the summer predominately ground invertebrates.
Only during the spring, when feeding its young, does it become a major predator, raiding the nests of songbirds for eggs and young.
Opinions differ widely on the impact of magpies on nesting birds. Most studies suggest that their impact is minimal, but where magpies have been removed, breeding success of songbirds has improved.
One of the explanations for the magpie’s booming population is thought to be the amount of carrion from road kills available today, providing a year-round food source.
Magpies can be caught legally in Larsen traps, a live-capture trap that uses a decoy bird to lure others into the trap. Many thousands are caught and killed in this way every year.
A male magpie, attracted to a female decoy, will attempt to court and mate with her unless his mate accompanies him, in which case their joint response is aggressive.
Magpies have always been surrounded by superstition, and there are many versions of the poem that begins: One for sorrow, two for joy...
There was an old rural tradition of raising one’s hat to a magpie; now few people wear hats, the tradition has largely died out.
A magpie looks much bigger than it is: the tail makes up half the bird’s length. Its average weight is only about half that of a wood pigeon’s.
They can be found throughout almost all of mainland Europe, from southern Spain and Greece north to Lapland, but are absent from many offshore islands, including Sardinia, Corsica, the Balearics and Iceland.
Pairs usually remain within their territories, but non-breeding birds wander more widely in small gangs or bands.
They are non-migratory, and it’s rare for one to ever travel more than 10km from where it was hatched.
Though most nests are built in trees, where there are no suitable trees they will build on the ground.
A typical nest incorporates a roof, and may have two entrances, but some populations build open nests.
Long-eared owls often adopt old magpie nests.
The date of the first egg being laid is largely the same throughout Europe, with the peak period mid to late April.
In southern Spain great spotted cuckoos often lay their eggs in magpie nests.
In Britain magpies have relatively few enemies apart from man, but in some parts of Europe they are the favourite prey of goshawks.
Communal winter roosts may hold as many as 200 birds.
The roosting birds have usually departed before sunrise. Living with Birds Notes.
Shorebirds of Ireland, Freshwater Birds of Ireland and The Birds of Ireland: A Field Guide with Jim Wilson.
www.markcarmodyphotography.com
The European goldfinch or goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis), is a small passerine bird in the finch family that is native to Europe, North Africa and western Asia. It has been introduced to other areas including Australia, New Zealand and Uruguay.
The goldfinch has a red face and a black-and-white head. The back and flanks are buff or chestnut brown. The black wings have a broad yellow bar. The tail is black and the rump is white. The female is very similar to the male but has a slightly smaller red area on the face.
The goldfinch is often depicted in Italian renaissance paintings of the Madonna and Child. Goldfinches are commonly kept and bred in captivity around the world because of their distinctive appearance and pleasant song. In Britain during the 19th century many thousands of goldfinches were trapped each year to be sold as cage-birds. One of the earliest campaigns of the Society for the Protection of Birds was directed against this trade.
In the poem The Great Hunger by Patrick Kavanagh, the goldfinch is one of the rare glimpses of beauty in the life of an elderly Irish farmer:
"The goldfinches on the railway paling were worth looking at
A man might imagine then
Himself in Brazil and these birds the birds of paradise" (wikipedia)
An adult Goldfinch on some teasel, Cobh, Co. Cork, Ireland. Taken through glass but It's a photo i've wanted to take for a long time.
One of those shots where you think did I get that, of course a quicker shutter speed and clean background would have been better but sometimes you get what you get with bird and wildlife photography.
This composite shows the male Nuthatch retrieving a seed it had previously hidden under the bark of a tree. White-breasted Nuthatches often store seeds and insects one at a time, under loose bark on their territory. They typically hide the food by covering it with a piece of bark, lichen or moss.
Santa Cruz county, Southern Arizona.
Gonna go back and change the other one to look like this.
It got so heavy when I tried to colour it.
COLOUR! With a U.
I think this is a Warbler, possibly an Audubon Warbler, getting at food on the underside of this rock formation.
Late in the day with the gulls feeding on midges. Unfortunately I didn't get any when they suddenly rise up open beaked into a swarm, next time perhaps.
They're at it again. I"m assuming the 2 scuffling hogs are males and the smaller one is a female.
Apologies for the clock, it should read 21:33
A pair of jackdaws kept coming to a nest box and dropping in lumps of dried mud. Eventually the chicks were on a thick layer of dried mud and the jackdaws could reach in the hole and get them.
Album Title: Exotic Behaviour
Model: 虹羚
Photographer: Edwin Setiawan
Place: 士林官邸
Date: 2009/07/12
Just about Photography: edwinsetiawan.wordpress.com
Edwin Setiawan Photography: www.edwinsetiawan.com