This site uses cookies to improve your experience. To help us insure we adhere to various privacy regulations, please select your country/region of residence. If you do not select a country, we will assume you are from the United States. Select your Cookie Settings or view our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Used for the proper function of the website
Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Strictly Necessary: Used for the proper function of the website
Performance/Analytics: Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Green-rumped Parrotlets: from egg to adult Text and photographs copyright Nick Sly (except Rae Okawa where indicated) and are used with his permission. She lays an egg every day or two until completing a clutch of anywhere from five to ten eggs. Empty out the rubber boots of any nighttime invaders before pulling them on.
In theory the eggs are laid, the adults share the incubation of the eggs for 28 days and then fluffy chicks emerge. There are other pairs that nest in rather obscure areas, but as soon as the eggs hatch they walk the chicks several kilometres to a better feeding area. If only it was that easy!
When I realised that this weekend would be my 500th post for this website I thought I could broaden the “birding” topic to “egg-laying” topic. In Australia we have two egg-laying mammals. As if this mammal was not odd enough with its spines and being an egg-laying mammal it also has a four-headed appendage.
One of the pairs of Pied Oystercatchers on Cable Beach have hatched their eggs this week. There had been one egg in the nest scrape on July 25th and a second egg followed. This Tuesday I was expecting the eggs to start to hatch and they did just that. Shading two eggs. Pied Oystercatcher family.
Killdeer on nest Killdeer eggs One day while we were at work my coworker received a phone call letting her know that the eggs had started to hatch. By the next day, when I returned, the entire Killdeer family had vacated the premises.
The header photo above shows where the family rested shortly after the two chicks left the nest on Tuesday. We had been patiently awaiting the arrival of the two chicks since the eggs were laid a month ago. I took a few photos of the chick that had hatched out and the remaining egg. Chick and egg at the nest site.
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 post Pheasant Coucal family appeared first on 10,000 Birds. It is currently Pheasant Coucal breeding season.
Last week during a camping trip to Kununurra we encountered a Radjah Shelduck family in one of the irrigation channels around town. The Radjah Shelduck family last week were swimming in the irrigation channel right against the road and so we could pull over and admire them. Radjah Shelduck family.
Well, not quite like clockwork, because this year one pair of Pied Oystercatchers on Cable Beach laid their first clutch of eggs a bit earlier than normal. This year the first clutch was laid at the end of May and this is the first time we have had eggs laid in May along Cable Beach since 2000. However, the news was very sad.
They are part of a family of New World Quail which includes Gambel’s, Mountain, Scaled and Montezuma Quail, as well as the Northern Bobwhite. In California, coveys break up and pairs begin forming in February or March, followed by nest building and egg laying in May or June. References: 1 Baicich, Paul J. and Harrison, Colin J.
Besides the avian attributes of flight, feathers and laying eggs, potoos are quite possibly the most unbird-like birds in the world. Sometimes called “Poor-me-ones&# on account of their haunting calls, these bizarre denizens of the night come in 7 different flavors from the family Nyctibiidae within the order Caprimulgiformes.
Crested Pigeons only lay two eggs and the nest we observed in our local park successfully hatched out two young. The Crested Pigeon would have incubated the eggs for twenty one days. The Crested Pigeon family remained in the tree away from danger for quite some time with both parents present.
I am a firm supporter of reforming factory egg farming. And I'm willing to pay for more expensive eggs if it allows for that. Organic eggs are more expensive than the standard egg carton. Tags: proposition 2 eggs factory farm food chickens. I believe that chickens should have room to stretch and walk around.
Our first Pied Oystercatcher eggs for this year’s breeding season were laid early and were due to hatch last weekend. This pair of Pied Oystercatchers never seems to have a problem with incubating their eggs. They take it in turns over the twenty eight days sitting or hovering over the eggs. Pied Oystercatcher and chick.
We have often suspected that the Sand Goannas would steal eggs as a food source from the Pied Oystercatcher nests if they found them. The two pairs should have been close to hatching their eggs from their first clutch. The pair of Pied Oystercatchers to the north have now laid a second clutch of two more eggs.
On a rising tide the Pied Oystercatcher family soon found a good position to watch and wait until the reef was exposed once again. Pied Oystercatcher family at roost. The Pied Oystercatcher family will remain together for some time yet. They moved around a bit to get comfortable on the rocky outcrop.
The breeding season started early this year with the first eggs laid at the end of May. This pair of Pied Oystercatchers have incubated two clutches of eggs and had chicks for a few days on both occasions. The eggs hatched out this week and the tides are very big, so there is a huge expanse of sand when the tide goes out.
The month and this particular period is all the more auspicious for me and mine, as so many friends and families celebrate spring birthdays. My family took our annual post-Easter Egg hunt hike at Powder Mills Park, where I spied several gorgeous matched pairs of Wood Ducks along with lots of different woodpecker species.
There are no Atlantic Puffins on Hog Island; they live locally only on Eastern Egg Rock, a painstakingly-restored seabird nesting colony which hosts three species of tern (including the endangered Roseate Tern ), Eider Ducks , Black Guillemots , and more, as well as 120 pairs of puffins. There’s one!”. I wanted more birds.
Following on from the sad loss of our first Pied Oystercatcher chick of 2020 the other eggs are now also hatching. Somehow the twenty eight days passed without the eggs being run over. We moved back and sat on the sand and watched the Pied Oystercatcher family. Pied Oystercatcher family. Pied Oystercatcher family.
Whilst we are on the subject of jacanas and their mating behavior, it is worth noting that this family of birds (as well as phalaropes and painted-snipes) is polyandrous. When the female is ready to lay eggs, she will deposit a clutch of eggs in a nest built by each of her males and that is the end of her role in reproduction.
The first eggs were laid in the first week of July, which is the case each year. The eggs take 28 days to hatch and it is then at least 35 days before the chicks are developed enough to fly and there have been problems with predation as in other years. Pied Oystercatcher sitting on eggs in the nudist area of Cable Beach.
There was an island in the middle of the river and the tall trees held Yellow-billed Spoonbill nests and there were several families within the vicinity. By the size of the juvenile birds the adults must have laid the eggs several months ago when the rains came to that area of Western Australia. Yellow-billed Spoonbill family.
For the purpose of this post being of a reasonable length, I’m only going to touch on members of the Tyrannidae family of New World Flycatchers which can be found in the cocoa estates of Trinidad and Tobago. Even though they belong to the same family, many flycatchers have different habits. Yellow-breasted Flycatcher.
Red-capped Plover nest We have mostly observed Red-capped Plover nests with two eggs, so she may well have laid another egg by now. The Red-capped Plover family group will move back and forth up and down the beach as the tides rise and fall and try to avoid the vehicles that use our local beaches at this time of year.
Arriving at the beach as the tide pushed in yesterday we soon found the Pied Oystercatcher family had left footprints in the wet sand. We then moved slowly through the rocks until we found the family. There are more Pied Oystercatcher nests with eggs in them now, so the breeding season is not over yet.
There is egg predation, chick loss and sometimes possibly just some “bad parenting”! One pair of Pied Oystercatchers laid eggs the first year and did not appear to realise they were supposed to sit on them, but they have since learnt it is an essential part of rearing a chick and they have done so since.
I am puzzled as to why Gulls and Terns are almost passed over, with less than two pages of text devoted to a family description and only six species accounts (four gulls, two terns). Family follows family with no page break, making this section a little dense. Woodpeckers are a family of focus for Tuttle-Adams.
Torresian Crows Corvus orru are the most common of the Crow family in the northern part of Australia and are the most likely of the Crow species that you will encounter. The Channel-billed Cuckoos will attempt to deposit their eggs in the nests of the Torresian Crows.
We continue to have egg predation at many of the nest sites and chick loss, but one pair of Pied Oystercatchers is being successful in raising two chicks so far. There has never been two eggs hatch and two chicks survive for more than about ten days since we started to keep an eye on them in 2000.
The breeding season in the north of Australia starts from about July 1st and there are often several attempts if the eggs fail, are lost or the chicks don’t survive. On July 1st 2007 an egg was laid by a Pied Oystercatcher that was known to be an adult in 2002 and had been banded in nearby Roebuck Bay.
A discarded pigeon’s egg reminded me that spring is just around the corner and that nest boxes should be readied in anticipation. Each family of birds have different requirements, so make sure that you match the box with a corresponding opening, site and height. What’s this? Where did winter go? Think like a predator.
Even when writing my book with all ardent efforts to remain unbiased; the section on Sandpipers & Allies was by far the longest – surpassing mega-families like Thraupidae and Tyrannidae.
We have recently come across several Masked Lapwing Vanellus miles families around Broome. They generally lay four eggs, but we have only seen a maximum of three surviving chicks after a few days. A good indication that they have eggs or young is the extreme noise that they make. Masked Lapwing chick hiding in a cow footprint!
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. I quickly took a photo and returned to the wet sand.
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. Sadly a lot of eggs are lost to feral cats and chicks are sometimes taken by birds of prey. Nest site with 3 eggs-one white!
I have encountered a few of the more quirky members of the family, including the brilliant and aptly-named African Emerald Cuckoo, India’s ultra-shy Sirkeer Malkoha, and the fascinating Lesser Ground Cuckoo in Costa Rica. It reminded me of a Roadrunner, which is, of course, also a member of the cuckoo family.
In fact we often don’t have any chicks within two weeks of the eggs hatching and other pairs along the coast have not been successful yet this season. More eggs have been laid and hopefully other pairs of Pied Oystercatchers will soon have young to care for. Pied Oystercatcher family.
They will only breed if the conditions are good and the male will be responsible for nest building and incubating the 6-12 eggs for approximately 60 days. There had been good rains the previous year and as a result of that there were numerous family groups. Emu family on the other side of the fence. Emu assessing the fence.
Since I found the first Pied Oystercatcher nest on Cable Beach in July 2000 I have learnt that the eggs rarely hatch due to predation and if they do hatch then a fully fledged chick is a rare and wonderful outcome. This year has been like other years with the first eggs being laid late June and the first chicks hatching recently.
Every year we observe both egg and chick loss amongst our Pied Oystercatcher pairs along Cable Beach and also in Roebuck Bay during their breeding season. The breeding season starts around the end of June and there are still eggs being laid and chicks hatching, but now these are the second clutches of eggs.
Shorebirds – or “shorbs” for the cuteness factor (as if that needed any enhancement) – remain one of the most fascinating families of birds for me. There is something about the challenge in identification, the mysticism of the more you look, the more you see. There is still so much to learn!
Then there were a few Hawfinches and two young Black Storks , Little Bittern , Great White Egret , Glossy Ibis , Common Kingfisher , Syrian Woodpecker , Peregrine Falcon , Red-backed Shrike , Lesser Grey Shrike , Collared Flycatcher and a family of Western Yellow Wagtails.
As is my wont, we’ll be celebrating a secular Easter replete with colored eggs, chocolate bunnies, and a fun family hike. Where are you going this weekend? Will you see birds there? Share your plans in the comments below! Perhaps I’ll even see my First Phoebe of 2012. Corey will be visiting his folks in upstate New York.
We organize all of the trending information in your field so you don't have to. Join 30+ users and stay up to date on the latest articles your peers are reading.
You know about us, now we want to get to know you!
Let's personalize your content
Let's get even more personalized
We recognize your account from another site in our network, please click 'Send Email' below to continue with verifying your account and setting a password.
Let's personalize your content