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A couple of weeks ago I introduced you to the pair of Pied Oystercatchers that were the first to start breeding along our coast this year. Sadly they were not successful with their first clutch of eggs, but are busily making nest scrapes again. We are hopeful that soon they will have laid another clutch of eggs.
We really don’t like the presence of Black Kites along the beach when the Pied Oystercatchers are breeding. The adult Pied Oystercatcher that is sitting on the eggs will lay as flat as possible to protect the eggs. Of course Black Kites also breed and at the moment there is a nest very close to the highway.
The Cuckoo Cuculus canorus has a bad reputation because of its habit of laying its eggs on the nests of other birds, who then raise their young. The White-rumped Swift Apus caffer , a tropical African breeding species, was only discovered breeding in Europe in the 1960s. Curiously, they also breed in Iberia today.
This year we have continued to monitor the breeding of several pairs of Pied Oystercatchers along the coast in Broome from Gantheaume Point to Willie Creek on the south side. The first eggs were laid in the first week of July, which is the case each year. Pied Oystercatcher sitting on eggs in the nudist area of Cable Beach.
But no, my story today is about the birds that come in to breed on the heather moorland which dominates the high ground. It’s quite amazing how birds that we are used to seeing much of the year on coastal mudflats, exploiting the intertidal, change their habits and take to the hills to raise their young. And with good reason.
It’s a bang-up breeding year for super-endangered birds! The species, which migrates from the Russian Arctic to Southeast Asia, is down to about 200 breeding pairs in the wild, due to habitat loss and poaching. For the past several years, getting the birds to breed has been an exercise in futility. Both photos by the WWT).
Male Phalaropes, Jacanas, Tinamous, and Rheas build nests, incubate the eggs and take care of the chicks. During the breeding season, adult males split from the flocks they normally live in and begin to advertise their availability to females by calling and performing body contortions. Some of the eggs will be lost to the elements.
There are thousands of shorebirds that visit Broome each year and the majority of them are now in the northern hemisphere hopefully sitting on eggs. Not all of our shorebird species migrate and those that reside here are also currently sitting on eggs, or thinking about laying eggs in the upcoming weeks.
Third, observing and photographing breeding birds and their young have become acts of ethical confusion as birders, photographers, and organizational representatives debate the impact of our human presence on the nesting process. And of eggs and nests and birds on nests. Cedar Waxwings exchange berries, carry nesting material, eggs.
A few families have a small number of eggs in the clutches, like gulls or cormorants. Others, like the petrels and some of the auks, will lay a single egg per breeding attempt. The investment placed in each clutch bur seabirds is so great that only one breeding attempt can be seen to completion each year. So why do it?
This year is the eighteenth year since we discovered our first Pied Oystercatcher nest on Cable Beach in Broome and it didn’t take us long to realise that they are not at all successful at raising young due to egg and chick predation. He last raised a chick successfully in 2016 and has nested in this area since 2008.
Of the sixteen pairs of Pied Oystercatchers between Gantheaume Point and Willie Creek on the south side, which is a length of breeding territories covering 23 kilometres-just over 14 miles-only one chick fledges most years. There is egg predation, chick loss and sometimes possibly just some “bad parenting”!
Since discovering our first Pied Oystercatcher nest on Cable Beach in July 2000 we have observed the breeding of these local shorebirds along the coast between Gantheaume Point in the south and Willie Creek in the north, which is a distance of 23 kilometres.
According to the McMurray hatchery , the “Silver Pheasant is considered a good ‘starter’ breed for people who want to learn more about raising pheasants” Hm. In one group, they added a blue egg to their nests. In the other, they added both such an egg and a peanut half-shell. What a weird world.
But when raised, they seem to have a sort of weird cape. In other words, they never raise their own young. Instead, they lay their eggs in other species’ nests, and let those nest-making birds (often significantly smaller than the cowbirds) raise their young. So that is a negative mark on both their records.
It has been a few years since I could share some good news about the Pied Oystercatchers breeding along the coast near Broome. Hopefully you won’t mind me writing a bit more this year about Pied Oystercatchers during the breeding season! The two eggs normally hatch at least a day apart and sometimes longer.
Traditionally since 2000 we have encountered our first Pied Oystercatcher eggs in the first week of July, but this year one pair have decided to start laying eggs early! Sadly they have already lost one clutch of eggs to predation, so by July 1st this year they are on their second clutch. Pied Oystercatcher nest.
We are into the second attempt at breeding for this season in Broome for Pied Oystercatchers. The first eggs are laid during the first week of July each year and if these eggs fail to hatch or the chicks are lost they will lay further eggs within a few weeks. Nest site with 3 eggs-one white!
Okay, they weren’t as fascinating as the birds of prey eating their, or the frankly still weird drawings of nightjars carrying eggs and woodcocks carrying chicks, but still, hornbills were cool because they sealed their mates up in holes in trees and then fed them as they raised the chick. We can hope!
Over the past few months there have been a lot of birds breeding around Broome with the excellent rain events that we have been having and the vegetation is at long last revived. Masked Lapwings have been busy breeding for some months now and some may well be on their second clutch of eggs. Masked Lapwing protecting a nest.
The HBW even mentions the importance of Ruoergai for this species: “Key sites for migrants include the Ruoergai Plateau (China), which is also an important breeding area” Common Mergansers also seem to use these wetlands as breeding area. Understated elegance is also something the White-browed Tit is rather good at.
They are usually seen singly or in pairs, but they sometimes form loose alliances whilst breeding. In such cases, the spurned donor has been observed helping to raise the brood. So there may be duplicity in the Dunnock household, but even the female can’t be sure whose chick she is raising.
I’ve family to raise and no time for modeling.” Typically there are four eggs in a brood especially on good year. Once the eggs hatch the family begins the long walk down to the shoreline. “Do you mind? ” The Baird’s Sandpiper is by far our most numerous shorebird here in Arctic Bay.
After 28 days of sharing the duty of sitting on three eggs we finally had the arrival of our first Pied Oystercatcher chicks for 2012 on Friday August 3rd. It is unusual for three eggs to be laid here in Broome and many eggs do not even hatch due to predation each season.
After a very good Wet Season with substantially more rain than normal over the first few months of 2017 the land was flooded and a huge variety of birds arrived in the Broome area to take advantage of the ideal conditions for breeding. Australian Painted Snipe nest with four eggs. Four eggs in the Australian Painted Snipe nest.
One of our male Pied Oystercatchers has been marked with an engraved leg flag “A1” and was one of the first pairs to lay eggs this season. Sadly the two chicks did not survive very long at all and the pair of Pied Oystercatchers were soon getting ready to lay more eggs. “A1” Preparing another nest site.
One of the two sub-species of Red Knot occurring in North America, the Rufa subspecies breeds in the Canadian Artic Region and migrates along the east or Atlantic coast of the United States. The other sub-species, Calidris canutus roselaari , migrates along the Pacific Coast and breeds in Alaska and the Wrangel Island in Russia.
Mentioning New Jersey often raises a snicker or a run down of all the drama and negative stereotypes that swirl around the Garden State, most of which are typified by the MTV hit show, “Jersey Shore.” The cowbirds will try to lay their eggs in a goldfinch nest, but once hatched the young only survive a few days.
As a Northeast birder I am familiar with the alarming decrease in the number of Red Knots along Atlantic shores and have signed petitions and written e-mails calling for legislation and rules that will limit the overharvesting of the horseshoe crab, whose eggs Red Knots depend on. million in the late 1990’s. Should the gulls be controlled?
Among birds the Egyptian Vulture uses rocks to crack Ostrich eggs, the New Caledonian Crow and Woodpecker Finch (one of several Darwin Finches of the Galapagos Islands), uses sticks to extract grubs from inside a branch. Egyptian Vultures raised is isolation used rocks to crack eggs presented to them. The behavior was inherent.
Being a westerner — raised in California, and now living in western Mexico — I was perhaps most excited about the migratory birds that breed in eastern North America. And then there was a Green Heron , not only showing us its nest, but also an egg. Then, around 4:00 p.m., And yet, there it was. But what could I do?
Kirtland’s Warbler is a classic niche species; they breed in only very specific conditions, which occur in only a very specific area. this species breeds. Fortunately, there were still a handful of immature birds alive at sea, and a few years later they were back on Toroshima breeding again.
The breeding ecology of the Yellow-bellied Warbler was actually studied exactly here at Nonggang in 2019 by 3 Chinese researchers. Some Thai researchers looked at the breeding ecology of the Buff-breasted Babbler and published their findings in the somewhat unsuitable-sounding journal “Agriculture and Natural Resources”.
It is currently Pheasant Coucal breeding season. Despite the fact that they are part of the cuckoo family they do actually raise their own young. Pheasant Coucals can lay up to five eggs, but we don’t know how often this actually occurs. The parent bird watched and the highway is not very busy at this time of year.
Studies on improving ostrich egg hatchability. Also, I learned that in the US , ostrich eggs are priced at $40-$75. Each fresh egg weighs 4 pounds and is the equivalent of 24 chicken eggs. . Each of these ‘families’ consists of a single mating pair and 1-5 ‘helpers’ who assist in raising the young.
"All animals deserve humane treatment, including animals raised for food.” Proposition 2 ends the practice of confining certain animals raised for food in crates and cages so small the animals can barely move. It applies to breeding pigs, egg laying hens and veal calves.
If a genetically engineered animal’s legs periodically fell off, would not its legs be more like a product of an animal (analogous to eggs) than a part of the animal? These people abstain from eggs and dairy products the production of which involves suffering for the animals. Would the blood be analogous to milk or eggs?
Egg loss to predation has been extraordinarily bad this year and all of the nests mentioned in the last post were lost and all of the pairs of Pied Oystercatchers laid a new clutch of eggs. In fact they have not just laid once again, but many pairs have laid up to five clutches of eggs this season.
The vast majority of the 10,000+ living species of birds are passerines, and the vast majority of those have a similar system of breeding: Mom and dad bird make a nest and share parental responsibilities roughly equally, if not identically. In the latter, three or more adult individuals contribute to the raising of offspring.
However, it’s not until the end of the first week of May that the majority of the breeding birds return to our village. The first eggs are usually laid at the end of May or sometimes in the first week of June, but this can vary depending on the weather. Both sexes incubate, with the eggs taking an average of 19 or 20 days to hatch.
Once again Pied Oystercatcher breeding season is fast approaching in Broome and we can expect the first batch of eggs to be laid within the next few weeks. We have also discovered that they are very rarely successful with the first eggs laid due to predation of either the eggs or the chicks. Flock of Pied Oystercatchers.
Many of the most peculiar aspects of birds are involved with mating, whether it’s for attracting mates, defending nests against predators, or raising chicks. One of the more interesting aspects (in my opinion) of breeding in birds is their mating strategy. of all bird species, is polyandry. 1996, Nakamura 1998). 1996, Nakamura 1998).
Mt Bruce, since you ask, is the Department of Conservation’s premier endangered bird breeding centre. Long-finned Eels swam in the rivers, and in their pens the breeding Blue Ducks where whistling away. And on this visit, we were there in time to see feeding for the kiwi chicks the centre was raising. A Kaka at Mt Bruce.
The fields near the Tiaozini mudflats look very much like a lunar landscape, but this does not seem to keep a number of species from breeding there, sometimes directly on dirt roads. But now back to birds … Little Ringed Plovers also seem to like to breed directly on the road. Blandness sells.
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