Brooding activities Pictures.

It is the ninth day of brooding (anticipated to last another 3 or 4 days). In this page we show more pictures of the male bird feeding the sitting female, and some of her activities in response to various kinds of stimulation.

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Nest building
Initial egg-laying pictures
Second egg-laying pictures
Brooding pictures
Feeding while brooding
Hatching pictures
Defence pictures
Epitaph

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Visitors since 10th September 1999:

More Brooding Activities Pictures

The male bird presents his caterpillar at the entrance to the nestbox.

The female shakes her wings in expectation of a visit from her lover. Is this cupboard love?

Four more shots of the feeding activities.

The female can move very quickly with oscillating movements at upwards of 10Hz. This makes a kind of drilling sound, like a woodpecker but faster. Here she is indulging in a doggie-scratch with a leg. Something is burrowing in her down.

It is still cold at night, early in the morning of 1st May 1999. The bird fluffs itself up very well...it is looking decidedly less sleek after nearly three weeks of egg-laying and brooding, but when it is fluffed up one doesn't notice this.

The pictures on this page were taken from videotape with an American item of capture electronics, with kindergarten packaging and advertising, with a battery which was flat on arrival, but, as far as we can tell, with superb technical performance. Perhaps they are even a little better than the pictures on the previous pages.

We are now into the twelfth 24 hour period of brooding. 2nd May 1999, Sunday. The bird has been fed repeatedly by the male over the last few days. Today she has been discouraging him from entering the nest to feed her, either taking her caterpillars at the entrance hole, or even departing from the box and coming back moments later with a wriggling caterpillar in her beak. She makes a noise which is a cross between a squawk and a cluck after receiving food from the male. This is louder and lower pitched than her usual calls. It is repeated maybe 10 times and then she swallows the caterpillar. Perhaps it is a bird's way of giving thanks.

She has also shown a marked reluctance to leave the eggs, and absences are now more often only one minute rather than the three minutes of recent days.

She has also discovered the reflecting plastic over the camera. Perhaps she sees her image in it. Sometimes she looks up and makes the calling noise she utters when the male is approaching with food. She has also spent a little time hanging onto the inside of the hole and tapping at the camera cover, repeatedly.

The fluttering of the wings during feeding is known in the textbooks as "courtship feeding". It is said to provide valuable extra food, and to maintain the pair bond. Certainly the video recordings are compulsive watching, even after several viewings.

The texts also say the common brooding time on the eggs is in the range 12-16 days, with 14 days quoted as the mean. This puts the hatching event between noon on Monday 3rd May 1999 and noon on Friday 8th May. Watch this space.

Next - - The eggs hatch

d.jefferies@surrey.ac.uk

David Jefferies

2nd May 1999