Still feeding unseen babies....

The food relay continues today, with both parents bringing in tasty morsels for their offspring hidden in the nest hole in the wall.

It's been hot today and yesterday, and I wonder how the babies are getting water. I guess the food brought in by the parents has to provide moisture as well as sustenance. This caterpillar looks nice and juicy!

If we go into the family room, a bird will often pop its head out and sit at the entrance of the nest. I'd like to think its enjoying our company, but it's just guarding its babies. It's still a lovely thing to happen, and we certainly enjoy their company!

Food Relay

Yesterday I watched the Pardalotes while I was washing dishes in the kitchen (which opens onto the family room). Both adults were very busy collecting food for the babies in the nest.

One would fly in with a morsel in its beak, perch on the heater flue next to the nest and chirrup to announce its presence. The other would emerge from the nest hole and fly off up to the 'exit' above the high windows, and the one with the food would disappear into the nest; gentle chirps would be heard at times emanating from the hole.

When I finished the dishes, I installed myself on a chair with the camera but there was a lull in the food production line I almost caught one shot of Mum or Dad with what looked like a grasshopper in its beak (too fast for me, so a bit blurry, sorry).

One of the adults popped its head out and waited for a bit, then seemed to get tired of waiting for its partner, so flew off outside. I caught it on video (click on link below thumbnail for YouTube clip):

“Can't wait any longer…going out!” 

I could hear Pardalote calls outside, so with my camera on Movie mode, I went out to look - usually a vain endeavour as the tiny birds are easily hidden amongst the leaves of our many trees and the penetrating quality of their call makes it difficult to locate the source. Just as I think I've worked out which tree to concentrate on, I'll hear the call further away!

Pardalote Call in Tree

So this video shows just a tree with an audible Pardalote's call...and a Butcherbird call at the end - a lovely sound but I hope they stay down in the valley and don't come hunting near our house, as we have swallows nesting under the eaves as well as the Pardalotes looking for food for the babies - not to mention their babies once they venture into the outside world.

Hungry Chicks

Lunchtime was busy today, with Mum and/or dad Pardalote bringing a constant supply of food to the nest hole for a couple of hours. They would perch on the heater flue next to the nest and either wait quietly for a half minute or so, or chirrup cheerfully, before disappearing into the hole.

Caterpillars seemed to be the special of the day.

I read up on Striated Pardalotes, and it seems that they lay 2-5 eggs. We've only ever noticed one 'extra' one at a time, but by the amount of food going into the burrow in the last couple of days, it seems possible that there is more than one juvenile in there.

It's been fairly quiet since the middle of the day, so maybe they're all resting with full tummies.

A Very Cheepy Christmas!

Christmas Day was hot at our place - it reached over 36 deg. C outside, and up to 29 deg inside by the afternoon - no air con, just fans to keep us cool. We had a small gathering (son, daughter and son-in-law) to lunch,  but we still managed to make quite a bit of noise.

The Pardalotes were in fine form, too, flitting back and forth to the nest, chirping and trilling. They brought food in to the nest, so there must have been a baby inside. I wonder if Junior had come back. It would be a real squash if there was more than one baby in the tunnel nest.

I've never seen the Pardalotes so active. The baby (babies?)  in the nest must be quite big to need so much feeding. They may have been a little worried about all the people in the family room, too - usually it's just Greg sitting quietly reading or maybe one of us in the kitchen at the other end of 'their' room. One of them sat at the entrance to the nest several times, for quite a long time, either because the nest was getting too hot/crowded, or to keep a look-out.

Baby Leaves Home

Junior left home yesterday... or, rather, I threw him out. 

I actually just took him outside and let him fly away, as he was flapping furiously at the windows and Mum and Dad were nowhere around to show him where to get out (they have a gap above the top windows, but he was down at the bottom of the large windows opposite). 

He was sitting at the window ledge on the floor, looking flustered, and I didn't want him to fly around and stun himself, so I bent down to pick him up, with no protest from him. He nestled quietly in my hand and carried him outside. I grabbed my camera, hoping he might hang around for a photo op, but as soon as I opened my hand out, he flew off up into the eaves under the verandah, then off to the trees nearby. 

I hope he finds his parents out there. I figure Pardalotes have such a penetrating call, surely he'll meet up with Mum or Dad outside, if that's what Pardalotes do. There are plenty of suitable spots around the house to make a nest, and the big meat-eating birds haven't been around for a while (there is a large group of choughs, but they eat seeds ... including our grass seed!)

Mum and Dad  have been looking for him inside, chirping melodically but not sounding alarmed. They must have decided he was big enough for solids - one came in with a juicy caterpillar in its beak, and couldn't work out why Junior didn't respond, but Junior had flown the nest.

The only sign I could find of Junior was a tiny half eggshell dropped in the loungeroom.... at the other end of the house from the nest. They often fly looping along the top windows to go in and out at that end, although they can just as easily get out just above their nest hole.

Today, they're back to normal, flying in and out when they feel like it and chittering softly. Maybe one of them is Junior - I have no way of knowing, as they all look alike. They've been quite active, and when I made a coffee a little while ago one popped out of the nest to watch me. I wonder if they're feeling broody again. 

Pardalotes at Christmas

We put up our home-grown Christmas tree in our family room yesterday, wondering what the resident pardalotes would think of it. Their nest burrow is high up in the mudbrick wall above the TV (next to the tree), but although I can just reach the top of the tree if I really stretch, it's still well below the nest.

The Pardalotes seemed unconcerned. they have been quite active and vocal for several days, flitting in an out of the nest, chirruping and chirping to each other, then flying along the top windows to find their favourite exit above the windows to the outside world. I suspect they're raising a baby in the nest, but can see nothing.

I did have a little observer the other day, when I was working in the kitchen. It popped its head out of the nest and sat there watching me for a good 15 minutes or so. I don't know if it was an adult or juvenile, male or female - unfortunately, they all look the same. It disappeared back into the hole when I went to the other end of the house.

Perhaps I should explain how we came to have Striated Pardalotes nesting inside our house.
I'd heard them calling for several seasons (a loud "phe-ew, phe-ew!" from the treetops), but it took a long time to actually spot one, as they're so small and they flit from tree to tree, high among the leaves.
We live on the fringe of Melbourne, Australia, on a hilly 25-acre block, partly cleared but with plenty of native trees and plants around the house. I have seen Pardalotes around the house, in earth banks and under the carport.
Our house is very rustic, built of mud bricks and timber, with high ceilings, huge beams and big, old bridge timbers, so there are gaps high above the clerestory windows (which we didn't actually notice  as they are way above our eye level!). We do get large moths inside when it's 'moth season', but I've made a moth net to catch them and put them outside again. we also get the occasional micro-bat in the house, but they find their way out again.

One day earlier in the year, there was a little pardalote fluttering inside the bedroom windows. At first I thought it was a large moth, but realised it was a bird. I caught it in my moth net and put it outside, thinking that would be the last of it. The following week it was back, so I caught it again and took it outside - I was sure that was the end of the friendship.
However, the next week I spotted a pardalote pecking at the wall inside the family room. The wall had some damage, caused by rain pelting on it and seeping through near the window timber.
The bird made a small hole below the window, but a few days later began another burrow, higher up.
I couldn't believe that it would actually use the burrow, but over the weeks there were two birds coming inside and working on the burrow.

Their small, stubby beaks were ideal shovels, and they flung the excavated mud out as they worked. It certainly made a mess, with fine mud dust over everything below, but that was a small price to pay for the novelty and privilege of having wild birds nesting in our house. I was even prepared for droppings (swallows nest outside under the eaves and make a pile of droppings below) but the Pardalotes seem to manage without making any mess - they seem to go outside to answer their calls of nature.
So now we have birds living in our house. we don't know when they're there until we hear them chirruping, hear the soft whirr of wings along the windows or see them come and go from the nest. Often I'll put the kettle on, to see a little head pop out as if the say Hi. What a delight. It's been months now, and I still can't quite believe it!

Here's a short clip of one of the birds flying out of the nest hole:

Pardalote leaving the nest hole