Category Archives: Birds

Wild birds, residents and visitors.

Wrens have left the nest!

At least two baby Superb Blue Wrens are keeping their parents really on their toes now! They left the nest some time yesterday and are now happily tweeting out to each other while the anxious parents keep watch.
They are constantly on the move, flitting about between the wattles and grevillias. Mum and dad keeping to the higher vantage points as lookouts.
I had one fledgling land only inches away, but by the time I moved the camera up to focus the branch was empty again. Such little sweeties!!!

 

Update March 1, 2011:
The wren numbers have rapidly jumped from 5 (two adults and 3 young) to over 7. They seem to be quite happy flitting about the garden, through the bushes, shrubs and trees. The dominant male still spends some time each day fighting his reflection …

A prickly solution

Just discovered my wild Superb Blue Wrens have built a nest in the heart of a prickly shrub close to the contested glass pane! This could account for the male’s excessively aggressive response to his reflection – so close to his nest.

Both the male and female have been observed with beaks full of food behaving very warily in the vicinity of the nest. When they’re comfortable they’ll not be seen, they make a quick dash into the bush, leaving quick and low shortly thereafter. Indications are they are feeding young!!

When the young successfully fledge I’ll get some photos of the nest. For now, we’ll keep well clear 🙂

Update: pics as promised (ok they’ve been sitting on my HD for a while waiting to be cropped and uploaded)

The front entry to the wrens nest
Front entry to the Superb Blue Wrens nest, deep inside a finger lime bush.

The nest is about the size of a decent grapefruit, or two tennis balls one above the other. It’s compact and difficult for anything bigger than a wren to approach. The thorns on the finger lime are savage!

The back of the wrens nest
The tightly woven grasses of the back of the Superb Blue Wrens nest.

This is the back of the nest. Very difficult for any predator to approach from this side too, which is probably just as well. A 25cm long lizard seems to have moved into the rock wall near the finger lime bush. It would probably relish birds eggs as a meal …

Delightfully Noisy Neighbours …

Male Superb Blue Wren sizing up the "competition" - his own reflection!
Male Superb Blue Wren sizing up the "competition" - his own reflection!

This morning early there was a lot of commotion from the wrens out in the garden. We have a pair of Superb Blue Wrens who have moved into the bushes around the house and aviary complex. The male spends half his waking hours defending “his” territory from his reflection in the glass wall of the eastern studio.

I thought perhaps the cat was giving them a hard time, so went out to check and pick a few strawberries for brekie at the same time.

The source of the commotion quickly became very obvious  – a large family of beautiful Superb Blue Wrens had invaded the front garden. They were flitting about from the lavender to the citrus, then back to the Kings Park callistemon. A petite little female landed on the verandah briefly before heading off to the garden again. And they were all twittering and whistling up a storm.

The extended family moved off after about an hour, probably much to the relief of our resident pair. Male Superbs are extremely territorial and despite their diminutive stature are quite capable of chasing off rivals (except that stubborn blue wren in the glass pane … 😉

Male Superb Blue Wren - Malurus cyaneus
Our beautiful wild male Superb Blue Wren - Malurus cyaneus - seen from the other side of the offending glass pane.

P.S. What I thought was just a handful of ripe strawberries turned out to be an overflowing bowl full, so we made strawberry sauce topping instead.