Birds in your garden

[overherebc]

46 minutes ago, jak2002003 said:

They can nest close together.

 

The bulbuls in our garden always seem to choose the most stupid and dangerous places to make a nest.  Its a wonder any chicks survive.  At the moment there is a nest in a small shrub less than a meter above ground.  The chicks are making so much noise that I am surprised no predator has heard them yet.  At least there are no cats in our garden because our 2 small dogs chased them all off when we first moved here.. and now they are scared to venture back!  

 

I also have a pet bulbul that I hand raised when a nest blew down in a storm. The other chicks were dead, and he was getting eaten alive by ants... but he did well.  The wild ones come and sit on top of his cage and steal his food through the bars.. and he gets really mad!  I wanted to release him but he is too tame and has no fear of humans, dogs or anything.  He will not even move out of the way if he is sitting on the floor and would be easy to step on. He will fly to me or my partner and want his head tickled, and even land on the dogs backs for a ride.   He seems very happy though and sings nice which cheers me up in the mornings.  

 

 

How did you feed it initially and what with?

[jak2002003]

1 hour ago, overherebc said:

How did you feed it initially and what with?

I soaked some mynah bird pellets with warm water...mashed them together with hard boiled eggs and some dry food for 'softbill' birds... fed the chick with this by putting bits of this mixture onto the end of a matchstick.  When it got bigger (and they grown fast) I also fed some live insects.. which I bought from a pet shop in the city.. mealworms, waxwroms, and chopped up crickets with some chicken chick starter mash.  I used tweezers to feed these.. but soon the bird could eat them itself.  

 

Now its older it eats bird pellets, and different fruits like banana, mango, papaya etc, and the occasional insect as a treat.  It will eat any fruit, even oranges... but he / she does not like grapes for some reason lol.  

 

I have some experience hand rearing birds.. back in the UK I used to work in a zoo and hand reared a few parrots and doves.  

 

A few year back here I found a white vented mynah bird chick on the road at night, and was given a blue magpie chick (nest down in a storm) ... both of which I was able to hand rear and release.  I was careful not to make them friendly so they got scared of people.  The mynah bird used to hang around the garden.. and even found a mate and nested in the roof space of an outbuilding, raised chicks of its own.. before they eventually all moved away.  I always knew it was the one I raised as it had a crooked leg (maybe from injury when it fell onto the road) and it used to talk.. saying 'hello' and 'here you are''.  It was funny hearing it chatting away to its mate in English while perched in a tree.  The blue magpie I took far out into the country near a dam.  There is a lot of forest there and not many people.  I had seen wild magpies flying about there before.  

[overherebc]

10 minutes ago, jak2002003 said:

I soaked some mynah bird pellets with warm water...mashed them together with hard boiled eggs and some dry food for 'softbill' birds... fed the chick with this by putting bits of this mixture onto the end of a matchstick.  When it got bigger (and they grown fast) I also fed some live insects.. which I bought from a pet shop in the city.. mealworms, waxwroms, and chopped up crickets with some chicken chick starter mash.  I used tweezers to feed these.. but soon the bird could eat them itself.  

 

Now its older it eats bird pellets, and different fruits like banana, mango, papaya etc, and the occasional insect as a treat.  It will eat any fruit, even oranges... but he / she does not like grapes for some reason lol.  

 

I have some experience hand rearing birds.. back in the UK I used to work in a zoo and hand reared a few parrots and doves.  

 

A few year back here I found a white vented mynah bird chick on the road at night, and was given a blue magpie chick (nest down in a storm) ... both of which I was able to hand rear and release.  I was careful not to make them friendly so they got scared of people.  The mynah bird used to hang around the garden.. and even found a mate and nested in the roof space of an outbuilding, raised chicks of its own.. before they eventually all moved away.  I always knew it was the one I raised as it had a crooked leg (maybe from injury when it fell onto the road) and it used to talk.. saying 'hello' and 'here you are''.  It was funny hearing it chatting away to its mate in English while perched in a tree.  The blue magpie I took far out into the country near a dam.  There is a lot of forest there and not many people.  I had seen wild magpies flying about there before.  

Thanks, was asking just in case. I suupose a lot depends on the chicks age at the start.

Closest I've come to it was strangely a bat in the middle of the day that came flying in the door and skidded across the tiles followed by 5 or 6 ox-peckers. When I jumped up the birds scattered and I ended up sticking the bat in a box until sunset then released it.

Edited June 20, 2018 by overherebc

[AjarnNorth]

It's definitely not a tailorbird.

[Skeptic7]

8 hours ago, Bredbury Blue said:

The B&B we stayed is called Gajib after the bird nok gajib. The wife googled nok gajib in Thai and it came up as Tailorbird.

While agreed that "Nok Gra jib" refers to Tailorbird...this is not one. Also, to my knowledge...Yellow-breasted Tailorbird is not found in Thailand.

 

Paused, enlarged and cropped the vid about halfway thru and it appears the bird has a crest. Though not 100% definitive...this would lend support to Ajarn North's suggestion, Black-crested Bulbul. 

 

Edited June 20, 2018 by Skeptic7

[Bredbury Blue]

^Cheers guys...lovely birds.

[AjarnNorth]

14 hours ago, Bredbury Blue said:

^Cheers guys...lovely birds.

Yep. You can see the crest in Skeptic's blow up. Definitely BC Bulbul. Cool birds. And YB Tailorbird are Philipines only, I think. But you (your wife) are right that Grajib is Thai for Tailorbird. And while you may have been seeing and hearing mostly bulbuls, it's likely tailorbirds were around wherever that guest house is. Of the 5 species in Thailand, two are common throughout - Common TB and Dark-necked TB. So the guest house is probably not improperly named. By the way, google tailorbirds and get a look at how they nest build to find out why they are called tailorbirds. Pretty amazing...

[overherebc]

1 hour ago, AjarnNorth said:

Yep. You can see the crest in Skeptic's blow up. Definitely BC Bulbul. Cool birds. And YB Tailorbird are Philipines only, I think. But you (your wife) are right that Grajib is Thai for Tailorbird. And while you may have been seeing and hearing mostly bulbuls, it's likely tailorbirds were around wherever that guest house is. Of the 5 species in Thailand, two are common throughout - Common TB and Dark-necked TB. So the guest house is probably not improperly named. By the way, google tailorbirds and get a look at how they nest build to find out why they are called tailorbirds. Pretty amazing...

Had one of those in the front garden last year and also had red ants building their 'nests'

( bunch of leaves stuck together ) as well. Luckily when I was just about to chaindrite the stuck together leaves a little beak popped up.

Haven't seen the nests this year but quite a few of the birds are about.

[Bredbury Blue]

Gajib B&B = Amphawa

[Bredbury Blue]

The yellow-vented bulbuls are back again, building their nest in my cycling helmet for the 3rd time. At lunchtime today there were just a few strands...this is at 5pm today. Busy birds!

 

 

Edited June 26, 2018 by Bredbury Blue

[overherebc]

On 6/26/2018 at 6:28 PM, Bredbury Blue said:

The yellow-vented bulbuls are back again, building their nest in my cycling helmet for the 3rd time. At lunchtime today there were just a few strands...this is at 5pm today. Busy birds!

 

 

Three eggs in the bulbul nest this morning. Hope they survive this time around.

Also got this almost humming bird sized bird feeding on the flowers in the front garden every morning.

 

Edited June 29, 2018 by overherebc

[overherebc]

Olive backed sunbird ??????

[AjarnNorth]

Olive-backed Sunbird

[tutsiwarrior]

interesting...looks to be rooting around the blossoms like a hummingbird in the west...but without the same charm and fascination...

 

sure do miss them hummingbirds, I could watch them all day...we had a nice big fushia in our back yard in California...

 

 

Edited June 29, 2018 by tutsiwarrior

[Bredbury Blue]

On 6/26/2018 at 6:28 PM, Bredbury Blue said:

The yellow-vented bulbuls are back again, building their nest in my cycling helmet for the 3rd time. At lunchtime today there were just a few strands...this is at 5pm today. Busy birds!

Nest building commenced Tuesday. I noticed a bird sitting in the nest this morning; one egg laid so far.

 

Pretty impressive isn't it - 4 to 5 days from build a nest to lay an egg!

 

[overherebc]

1 hour ago, Bredbury Blue said:

Nest building commenced Tuesday. I noticed a bird sitting in the nest this morning; one egg laid so far.

 

Pretty impressive isn't it - 4 to 5 days from build a nest to lay an egg!

 

I noticed with the pair in my garden only one does all the work and the other gives the impression of supervising.

?

[overherebc]

Had a quick look this morning and this time the birds have managed to hatch all 3 eggs.

[Bredbury Blue]

On ‎6‎/‎30‎/‎2018 at 9:46 AM, Bredbury Blue said:

Nest building commenced Tuesday. I noticed a bird sitting in the nest this morning; one egg laid so far.

 

Pretty impressive isn't it - 4 to 5 days from build a nest to lay an egg!

 

Egg hatched yesterday (12 days to hatch).

 

Some observations:

• This is third time my cycling helmet has been used in 2 years for a nest site – must be the same adult pairing. Last year in May, this year in March and now.
• First time 3 eggs. Second time 2 eggs. This time 1 egg. We don’t think any hatchling has survived to fly away.
• During incubation period we only ever see one bird. Daytime it flies away to a distant tree when we pass near the nest. Nighttime the bird sleeps deeply and rarely is awake when we pass (my car horn went off accidently the other day, 5 metres away from the nest, no reaction from the bird); if it is awake it doesn’t fly away when we pass a metre away but just watches us pass – must be a dangerous world out there flying around in the dark so prefers to take its chances staying put.
• When the chick hatches then we always see a pair of birds, one on the nest and the other in the tree the other side of the car and they take turns coming and going. Sometimes they sit together in the tree. When we pass the nest now the bird flies away making a (distress) call to the other bird – the birds stay close until we’ve passed and then straight back on the nest.

 

See if this on survives…

 

 

 

[jak2002003]

9 hours ago, Bredbury Blue said:

Egg hatched yesterday (12 days to hatch).

 

Some observations:

• This is third time my cycling helmet has been used in 2 years for a nest site – must be the same adult pairing. Last year in May, this year in March and now.
• First time 3 eggs. Second time 2 eggs. This time 1 egg. We don’t think any hatchling has survived to fly away.
• During incubation period we only ever see one bird. Daytime it flies away to a distant tree when we pass near the nest. Nighttime the bird sleeps deeply and rarely is awake when we pass (my car horn went off accidently the other day, 5 metres away from the nest, no reaction from the bird); if it is awake it doesn’t fly away when we pass a metre away but just watches us pass – must be a dangerous world out there flying around in the dark so prefers to take its chances staying put.
• When the chick hatches then we always see a pair of birds, one on the nest and the other in the tree the other side of the car and they take turns coming and going. Sometimes they sit together in the tree. When we pass the nest now the bird flies away making a (distress) call to the other bird – the birds stay close until we’ve passed and then straight back on the nest.

 

See if this on survives…

 

 

 

Hope they survive.

 

Sadly, the 2 chicks died from the red whiskered bulbuls that nested in our hedge.  We watched the adults build the nest... have eggs, raise the chicks to just near fledging.  The nest was right next to our patio and the adults were not scared of us sitting out there having a drink.

 

No idea what happened, but one morning I found both chicks on the ground out the nest.  Once was dead and cold.  The other was still alive, but cold.  I warmed it up in the house and it picked up and started to get energy and begging for food.. so I put it back in the nest.

 

The parents were very agitated all day.. but came back to feed it several times.  I thought all would be OK, but the next morning this chicks was also dead.. but still in the nest.

 

No explanation for what went wrong.   No bad storm, or bad weather.  No ants or insects in the nest, and no wounds or signs of predators on the chicks.  

 

I was temped to hand rear the surviving chick.. but when I saw the parents go back and feed it I decided against it. 

[Skeptic7]

53 minutes ago, jak2002003 said:

Hope they survive.

 

Sadly, the 2 chicks died from the red whiskered bulbuls that nested in our hedge.  We watched the adults build the nest... have eggs, raise the chicks to just near fledging.  The nest was right next to our patio and the adults were not scared of us sitting out there having a drink.

 

No idea what happened, but one morning I found both chicks on the ground out the nest.  Once was dead and cold.  The other was still alive, but cold.  I warmed it up in the house and it picked up and started to get energy and begging for food.. so I put it back in the nest.

 

The parents were very agitated all day.. but came back to feed it several times.  I thought all would be OK, but the next morning this chicks was also dead.. but still in the nest.

 

No explanation for what went wrong.   No bad storm, or bad weather.  No ants or insects in the nest, and no wounds or signs of predators on the chicks.  

 

I was temped to hand rear the surviving chick.. but when I saw the parents go back and feed it I decided against it. 

You did the exact right thing. Hand rearing a nestling is near impossible...even for pros, but not impossible. Hand rearing a  fledgling has much better odds. Too bad. Lots of Bulbul failure stories here, even in seemingly perfect conditions. 

 

Here's a very interesting and in depth study on the breeding biology of RWBU in China. Overall success rate was approx 34%.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4790259/

Nest success

For a total of 225 eggs (n=87 nests) laid, hatching success was 53.78% (n=50 nests) while fledging success was 63.63% (n=34 nests), and overall nest success was 34.22%. The average number of fledglings per successful nest was 2.26±0.67 (n=34 nests, range=1-3).

 

 

[overherebc]

All three in the nest have died.

One each day over three days. I wonder if the food being fed to them by the parent birds has come from sources where insecticide/weedkiller has been used.

If they come back and nest again and any chicks die again I'm going to be seriously tempted to try raising the last one.

Was watching a BBC documentary on birds in Java and there they are on the endangered list along with many others.

[overherebc]

23 hours ago, Skeptic7 said:

You did the exact right thing. Hand rearing a nestling is near impossible...even for pros, but not impossible. Hand rearing a  fledgling has much better odds. Too bad. Lots of Bulbul failure stories here, even in seemingly perfect conditions. 

 

Here's a very interesting and in depth study on the breeding biology of RWBU in China. Overall success rate was approx 34%.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4790259/

Nest success

For a total of 225 eggs (n=87 nests) laid, hatching success was 53.78% (n=50 nests) while fledging success was 63.63% (n=34 nests), and overall nest success was 34.22%. The average number of fledglings per successful nest was 2.26±0.67 (n=34 nests, range=1-3).

 

 

Makes me feel a bit better. I'm having thoughts about a large cage with a tree inside and a pair of them getting good clean food and water everyday and see if that might give any possible chicks a good chance but at the same time I don't like to see birds in cages.

Edit.

In fact I don't like to see anything in a cage.

Edited July 14, 2018 by overherebc

[Skeptic7]

It's tough to watch all the toil and effort of a pair...only to see it fail (or in the case below...robbery and murder!). In The States (Marietta, GA) decades ago, put up a couple Bluebird nest boxes. One on my property and one on some state property, with permission. The nests over the years were always successful, as the boxes were a fortress on a pole of the perfect height and placement for Bluebirds, equipped with a long squirrel/raccoon baffle. An egg here and there didn't hatch and once found a dead fledgling by the birdbath I also provided, but overall very successful and always fledged all or most.

 

One year however, Great Crested Flycatchers chose a Screech Owl box I had attached high in a huge oak. Had only seen a Screech Owl roost in the box a couple times. Was thrilled with the flycatchers and watched them build the nest. When the clutch was laid, the female would settle in every evening for the night to incubate with the male standing close guard. I knew when the eggs had hatched, as the pair was bringing food continually all day. As usual, the female would settle in at dusk and the male watching close by. One evening, a day or 2 after hatching, was on my elevated deck about to go in for the night, when heard all kinds of commotion and frantic bird screaming. Grabbing my binoculars just in time to see a raccoon fall from the nest box...his arm had been inside. Then all was quiet. With a flashlight, I ran out and inspected the situation. All quiet and seemed OK, but I was troubled. The next day I was out on the deck early and eagerly watched the box. Only one bird was bringing the food and calling continually when it rested. I took a ladder out and saw 4 bald youngsters and some feathers stuck around the nest hole. Realizing then that the masked bandit had climbed up and probably snatched the attentive female right out of box.

 

The male assumed his feeding and calling (to the female) immediately after I left, but still only one bird doing all the feeding. Confirmed it was the male, because that night no bird went inside to incubate. The male will not...not in his DNA. This was April, which can still be quite cold in north Georgia, especially at night and a cold front was approaching. Contacted a wild animal rescue facility and they said what I already knew...the very young nestlings wouldn't survive the overnight temps, as it was going down into single digits. They told me to bring them in to their clinic and they would try to rear them, but said that odds were not good. They also had an incubator. I extracted the nest with the help of a friend and took them in. All 4 died. Still feel bad after all these years. ☹️

[tutsiwarrior]

6 hours ago, Skeptic7 said:

It's tough to watch all the toil and effort of a pair...only to see it fail (or in the case below...robbery and murder!). In The States (Marietta, GA) decades ago, put up a couple Bluebird nest boxes. One on my property and one on some state property, with permission. The nests over the years were always successful, as the boxes were a fortress on a pole of the perfect height and placement for Bluebirds, equipped with a long squirrel/raccoon baffle. An egg here and there didn't hatch and once found a dead fledgling by the birdbath I also provided, but overall very successful and always fledged all or most.

 

One year however, Great Crested Flycatchers chose a Screech Owl box I had attached high in a huge oak. Had only seen a Screech Owl roost in the box a couple times. Was thrilled with the flycatchers and watched them build the nest. When the clutch was laid, the female would settle in every evening for the night to incubate with the male standing close guard. I knew when the eggs had hatched, as the pair was bringing food continually all day. As usual, the female would settle in at dusk and the male watching close by. One evening, a day or 2 after hatching, was on my elevated deck about to go in for the night, when heard all kinds of commotion and frantic bird screaming. Grabbing my binoculars just in time to see a raccoon fall from the nest box...his arm had been inside. Then all was quiet. With a flashlight, I ran out and inspected the situation. All quiet and seemed OK, but I was troubled. The next day I was out on the deck early and eagerly watched the box. Only one bird was bringing the food and calling continually when it rested. I took a ladder out and saw 4 bald youngsters and some feathers stuck around the nest hole. Realizing then that the masked bandit had climbed up and probably snatched the attentive female right out of box.

 

The male assumed his feeding and calling (to the female) immediately after I left, but still only one bird doing all the feeding. Confirmed it was the male, because that night no bird went inside to incubate. The male will not...not in his DNA. This was April, which can still be quite cold in north Georgia, especially at night and a cold front was approaching. Contacted a wild animal rescue facility and they said what I already knew...the very young nestlings wouldn't survive the overnight temps, as it was going down into single digits. They told me to bring them in to their clinic and they would try to rear them, but said that odds were not good. They also had an incubator. I extracted the nest with the help of a friend and took them in. All 4 died. Still feel bad after all these years. ☹️

 

a great story...alas, mother nature is as harsh as she is beautiful and enthralling...

 

I was with a logging crew in SE Alaska and we hooked a turn (some logs out in the brush attached to the overhead rigging to be dragged up to the landing to be loaded onto a truck) and ran out before the whistle blew for the yarder to go ahead with the rigging and there was a nest with some terrified fledglings in the limbs of one of the logs...I looked and didn't say nothing, I was a junior logger and not my place...later I told the hooktender/foreman and he said that I shoulda said something as we coulda saved the birds...never forgot that, nothing could survive the violence of the logs being dragged uphill to the landing...

 

but like they say in the woods, ye hire out to be tough...a few years later I quit the woods altogether...

 

 

 

 

Edited July 14, 2018 by tutsiwarrior

[thetefldon]

Not much doing up here in Phetchabun, apart from rain that is!  Did spot this Black-shouldered Kite hunting this morning despite a downpour at the time.

[Bredbury Blue]

Chick yesterday (Day 6) at dawn - unresponsive and I was feeling it wasn't going to make it

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bredbury Blue]

Chick today (Day 7) at dusk – parent bird had just woke from overnight sleep and left the nest (it doesn’t leave the nest until it’s light)

 

Vid1- chick sleeping

Vid2 – Chick hears camera, wakes and wants feeding

 

Amazing how quickly the chick grows and changes – today, feathers are very obvious.

 

 

Just to clarify in case anybody thinks we disturb the nest or birds or chick, we don’t; the nest is about 1-2 metres from my front door and 1 metre away from the car driver’s door when parked so we have to pass the nest several times a day.

 

 

 

[Bredbury Blue]

Bird hardly fits on the nest now that the chick is getting bigger - almost lay on its side - seems to sleep all night though (dusk to dawn). Here I'm stood with my chest almost touching the bike helmet and the bird is unaware - last night.

 

 

 

 

[Skeptic7]

Up close look at 3 Baya Weaver nests. The workmanship is superb. Notice how spectacularly woven the nest...and in the last pic how well and tightly wrapped around the branch the grasses & fronds are for supporting the dangling chamber. Obviously 2 of these are unfinished nests. Speculations on the purpose of these unfinished structures abound and they are always found in nesting colonies. Whether just deserted, or rejected nests by females or sheltered roosts called "canopies", the males have definitely been seen alighting inside on the sheltered perch while the female is incubating.

 

Whether the canopy is deliberately planned as a shelter for one or both birds, or whether it is only a partially built and deserted nest, there can be no doubt that the nonincubatlng male has been seen occupying the structure and using it as a perching convenience; and there is no doubt that, whatever the original purpose of these structures, the canopy does make an admirable refuge from wind, rain and hot sun. (C.A. Wood The Nest of the Baya Weaver Bird, 1926)

 

[Bredbury Blue]

It's day 11 and the bulbul chick looks exactly like day 11 in the blog i found

 

http://asal-sakti.blogspot.com/2008/12/photos-of-bulbul-chicks-from-eggs-to.html?m=1