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Well, looking for suitable material to move to the tree top nest actually…such incredible looking birds ❤️
Willie Wagtail
Scientific Name: Rhipidura leucophrys
Description: The Willie Wagtail is the largest, and most well-known, of the Australian fantails. The plumage is black above with a white belly. The Willie Wagtail can be distinguished from other similar-sized black and white birds by its black throat and white eyebrows and whisker marks. The name wagtail stems from the constant sideways wagging of the tail. Young birds resemble the adults, but have paler, slightly rusty edges to the feathers of the wings.
Distribution: The Willie Wagtail is found throughout mainland Australia but is absent from Tasmania. It is also found in New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, the Bismarck Archipelago and the Moluccas.
Habitat: Willie Wagtails are found in most open habitats, especially open forests and woodlands, tending to be absent from wet sclerophyll forests and rainforests. They are often associated with water-courses and wetlands and are common around human habitation.
Seasonal movements: Although usually seen singly or in pairs, it may form winter flocks, often mixed with other species.
Feeding: Willie Wagtails are active feeders. Birds can be seen darting around lawns as they hunt for insects on the ground. As they do so, the tail is wagged from side to side. Insects are also captured in the air, in active chases.
Breeding: The Willie Wagtail's nest is a neatly woven cup of grasses, covered with spider's web on the outside and lined internally with soft grasses, hair or fur. The soft lining of the nest, if not readily available, is often taken directly from an animal. The nest of the Willie Wagtail may be re-used in successive years, or an old nest is often destroyed and the materials used in the construction of a new nest. Nests are normally placed on a horizontal branch of a tree, or other similar structure. The cream-coloured eggs, speckled with grey and brown are incubated by both sexes. The young birds stay with the parents until the eggs from the next clutch start to hatch. At this point they are driven away. If conditions are favourable, the couple may raise up to four successive clutches in a single season.
The Willie Wagtail is often found in the company of cattle and sheep. They either run behind the moving animal snatching insects as they are disturbed, or sit on the animal's back, darting off to capture a flying insect and then returning to its mobile perch.
Calls: The Willie Wagtail's call is well-known, often being uttered constantly throughout the night, and is interpreted as "sweet-pretty-creature", though other calls involve more scolding and chattering notes.
Minimum Size: 18cm
Maximum Size: 22cm
Average size: 20cm
Average weight: 20g
Breeding season: mainly August to February; can nest all year round.
Clutch Size: Three.
Incubation: 14 days
Nestling Period: 14 days
(Sources: www.birdsinbackyards.net; "The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds - Second Edition")
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© Chris Burns 2019
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This image may not be copied, reproduced, distributed, republished, downloaded, displayed, posted or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic, mechanical, photocopying and recording without my written consent.
Since we lost our breeding pair of swans a couple of years ago, we've been without new cygnets each spring, which is something I have missed. The young swan who has taken the territory along this stretch of the Union Canal now has a mate, and a friend alerted me to the fact they had made a nest and it looks like there are eggs in it, so perhaps this spring we will have cygnets again!
Sadly being young and inexperienced, they have chosen a less than ideal location - in a busy area, right against the canal wall by some apartments, meaning locals cats, foxes and others can see down into the nest. Hopefully the large swans will be a deterrent to any would be predators and we get some hatchlings...
Delighted to see them building up the nest this evening as I walked home from work.
Great Egret Family - In the Wild - sunlit-white
Saint Augustine, Florida U.S.A. - Summer 2025
Independence Day 2025 - Northern Florida
The Oldest U.S. City (1513) - 4th of July 2025
---------Independence Day 2025 ----------U.S.A.!
In the Wild - Nesting - Loud Rookery - chaos! - kids in the nest!
*[left-double-click for a closer-look - adult + two large juveniles]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Egret
20240912_5378_R62-600 Nesting material
A Little Pied Shag arrives back with some just obtained nest building material.
#15991
Common Murres. Also known as "turrs" in Newfoundland. On Bird Island, Witless Bay. There is a much more uncommon "razor bill" among the murres. See large.
A pair of cormorants nesting in a tree above the Silver River in Silver Springs State Park near Ocala Florida.
Both male and female have been feeding all day today
I am wondering how many as the last count was 11 eggs.
We watched one of them having another quick bath.
Carmine Bee-eaters nesting on the banks of the Luangwa River, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia.
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Various groups of people here in Europe erect elevated platforms to facilitate nesting of storks. The birds certainly use them. I imagine the idea is to counter the loss of natural locations to both agriculture and urbanization. However, I prefer to see storks nesting in trees. It just seems more natural (and photogenic).
Obviously, there are two storks and a nest toward the top of my springtime 2021 photo. However, if you look lower, you can just glimpse other storks who also have a nest in this tree. This lower nest looks less well constructed than the one above, and is maybe even falling apart. But what do I know? I am not a stork.
Location: Tier Park Lange Erlen, Basel City BS Switzerland.
In my album: Dan's Birds.
The male storks arrived a few months back and looks like the chirping of tiny beaks may be in prospect.
The female of this pair of nesting osprey is noticeably larger. Both parents are sitting near the nest to protect it. Couldn't see any young. I believe she is still incubating. Taken at Fort Pickens , Florida.
Our beautiful world, pass it on.
This is from a friends farm where they have horses. You can see all the different color horse hairs throughout along with small sticks.
Some ladies like flowers - others prefer something different........
A mid flight capture yesterday of a Cattle Egret (in breeding flush) returning to it's perch with a freshly collected addition to the nest!!
Captured during a session at Hunter Wetlands Centre (Shortland, NSW; Australia).
Hope you like the details here.
Thanks for any comments, views or favorites -always much appreciated!!
Have a wonderful day!!
I took these photos a couple of days ago outside out house. These trees don't belong to us, but to the community. But they're right beside our house, so they're practically ours right? ;D
I just love the golden color they turn in the fall. I HAD to take a doll photo with one of these trees. I was worried about what the neighbors might think of me being stooped over INSIDE of one of these trees LOL
Notice the little fledglings in the center of the nest. It will have 2 siblings soon..
Nesting information:
NEST PLACEMENT
Nest Tree -Great Blue Herons nest mainly in trees, but will also nest on the ground, on bushes, in mangroves, and on structures such as duck blinds, channel markers, or artificial nest platforms. Males arrive at the colony and settle on nest sites; from there, they court passing females. Colonies can consist of 500 or more individual nests, with multiple nests per tree built 100 or more feet off the ground.
NEST DESCRIPTION
Male Great Blue Herons collect much of the nest material, gathering sticks from the ground and nearby shrubs and trees, and from unguarded and abandoned nests, and presenting them to the female. She weaves a platform and a saucer-shaped nest cup, lining it with pine needles, moss, reeds, dry grass, mangrove leaves, or small twigs. Nest building can take from 3 days up to 2 weeks; the finished nest can range from a simple platform measuring 20 inches across to more elaborate structures used over multiple years, reaching 4 feet across and nearly 3.5 feet deep. Ground-nesting herons use vegetation such as salt grass to form the nest.
Source: Cornell Lab of Orinthology