Red Wattlebirds in Tenterfield begin breeding at 4-5 weeks of age

Having studied the local Red Wattlebirds and identifing individuals through photography and videos for about 6 1/2 months now I recently started asking myself questions about these birds. I've noticed that over a 6 1/2 month period something odd was happening around my neighbour Carol's place with these birds.

Currently I'm observing the fifth observed generation (from before the 14th August 2012 to the first week of December 2012) Red Wattlebird that is probably a male as it is hanging around the area, as if making the area it's home.

This is what has been happening: The first generation male made the area his home, then found himself a mate. In all the commotion of finding himself a mate his parents showed up then disappeared after a few days to a week. He bred with his mate and they had a chick. He nested in a nearby area. At close to 1-2 weeks later when the chick/s had fledged the parents disappeared from the area. The one juvenile stayed in the area by itself, alone, until almost it was 1 months old. Then it found itself a mate. Not long later the parents came back to visit and the 1 and a bit month old bird seemed very excited by seeing it's parents. A while later, maybe a week, the parents disappeared never to be seen again (if my memory serves me correctly).

This whole process repeated itself exactly with the second generation male, and third and fourth generation males leaving (currently) the fifth generation chick which now remains and which is slightly larger than it's parents. However, this fifth generation male has been disappearing from it's territory lately. I'm guessing it is looking for a mate right now.

The strange thing about all of this is I have never heard of any bird species that only raise one brood in one area/nesting site then leaves the area only for it to repeat itself with the next generation son. I do not know where the parents go after they have their first lot of offspring, nor do I know if they reproduce again. But I have a theory (see image below).

My theory of what male Red Wattlebirds do and
where they go during the breeding and non-breeding
season.

Maybe, with this particular "family" of Red Wattlebirds, their firstborn children are raised in this area, and their secondborn children are raised in another area, and the thirdborn children are born in even another location, etc? This seems like the most logical explanation to me as to why the parents don't stay in the area and maintain a territory nor have any more children here. But why they don't raise another brood here is the real question to be asked. And why are they breeding at just one month old, every month, is a question that needs an answer. In other parts of Australia Red Wattlebirds breed only once or twice per season, not close to 4 times per season.

After having gone through all the posts and notes I've written up about the local Red Wattlebirds I have discovered they breed, at first, at the age of one month old. They only appear to have one offspring, although they may lay 2 or more eggs. At the age of 14 days old the fledged chick is 9/10ths fully grown and is already living by itself. By one month old it is attracting a mate and ready to breed and breeds successfully within the next two weeks in the immediate area of where it was born. It does not use the same nest it was born in rather it makes a new nest.

I have been fortunate to study each new offspring being born, raised and fledged in the immediate area. However, Red Wattlebirds are not common to Tenterfield. I only know of four individuals that temporarily live in Tenterfield - in the immediate area of where I live; the two parents; and the one offspring with it's mate. I am uncertain if other Red Wattlebirds live in other parts of Tenterfield but if they do then the number count would be identical to that of my area - just 4 individuals over the course of one month - or 3 if a chick has hatched - or 2 if the parents are nesting - or 1 if the chick is alone before it starts breeding.

I have never heard of any bird species that is physically and sexually mature at the age of just one month old, as is the case for Red Wattlebirds in Tenterfield. I find it ironic that the number of Red Wattlebirds in Tenterfield remains constant. I have not seen them "defending their food sources from other honeyeaters" as what appears to happen in other places in Australia. There are also no rivals with Red Wattlebirds in the immediate area, yet new chicks are able to find themselves a mate every time without fail. The whole area of the Northern Tablelands must be full of Red Wattlebirds but their numbers so widely scattered that it's impossible to do a population count.

This leads to many questions being asked. like "Once a Red Wattlebird has children do they have more children the following month?" "Do the parents always keep in contact with their male offspring?" "Is it possible that the male Red Wattlebird parent form knowledge of their grandchildren and great-great grandchildren, etc through the visiting of their male offspring?" "Do they know of their family lineage?" "If this occurs with the male offspring what happens with the female offspring?" "Why are male offspring being visited by their parents yet the female mates are not visited by their own parents?" "How long do Red Wattlebirds actually live for in the wild?" "Why do male Red Wattlebirds put so much emphasis on calling out to it's parents in the first place?" "What caused Red Wattlebirds to breed in this strange manner in the first place?" "Is this increase in their breeding cycle a part of some sort of adaptation or evolution instigated by climate change?" "Do these particular birds migrate at any point in their lives?" "Does this mean that they have shorter lifespans than Red Wattlebirds that breed less frequently?"

The breeding cycle of the Tenterfield Red Wattlebirds is a mystery. All I know is that going on what I've read about Red Wattlebirds on the Internet on bird websites, the local birds should not be breeding as often as they do. But they are and I think I will never know why. If you think you might know the reason why they are breeding at intervals of about every one and a half months then please leave a comment below.

UPDATE: Red Wattlebird parents and chick

The new fledgling at Carol's place. My camera's date
setting is actually an hour behind true time. I will change
the time setting once my camera is fully charged.

There is still no visual sighting of any of their chicks yet but both parents have been sighted at my place wanting food from me. This occurs about twice a day now, where food will be taken back to the chick/s. I believe there may be only one chick, going on the amount of food taken.

I really need to study any past notes I wrote down on this breeding pair. So far all is going well and the fledgling is still alive and seems to doing well. It is still being fed by it's parents anyway.

The parents prefer to take bread back to the chick as it is soft. No meat or insects, that I am aware of, has been taken back to the chick yet.

I wrote the above before I had a quick visit to Carol's place and indeed I was right all along about how many chicks they had. Not long after I got there I saw one of the parents with a chick. I managed to take a few photos of the chick before my camera died on me. I only have blurry photos of the chick at the moment.

Tomorrow I'll take some more photos. I'm hoping to get an audio recording of the chick's voice in the next few days, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hope the camera will pick it's voice up. It's voice is a soft, low pitch sound and a very quiet noise. The chick is 3/4 the size of it's parents and is still learning how to fly. At one point when my neighbour's dog raced passed the parent and chick, the chick flew off straight into the upright pole of the clothes line. It didn't seem to hurt itself and was flying again straight away. It's first lesson - watch where you're flying!

In flight it's wings cutting through the air is making a heavier sound than that of the adult birds as it seems to be struggling to keep up with it's parent/s in flight. And the chick has this cute little chirp/squark to it. It has such a tiny little voice at the moment. The chick is so adorable.

Updates: species nesting and breeding

Over a period of about 1 & a 1/2 weeks I have observed some changes with some of the birds nesting in Tenterfield. The Red Wattlebird which I thought was the only one left in Tenterfield has started begging for food for it's young about 5-7 times a day. As soon as it has eaten a bit of the food I give it (sometimes), it flies away with a large mouthful of food. Not long afterward it is back again wanting more food. The adult bird, it is the one with the left-bent tail feathers, continues to fly down to the creek where the nest is to feed it's young. So, obviously, it has a mate who is also taking care of it's young, which appears to be constantly sitting or very near the nest. I saw it's mate out feeding herself/himself tonight just before it got dark just after sunset. Today and yesterday the food begging has slowed down a great deal to just 2-3 times a day.

Yesterday when I gave a bit of meat to the Australian Magpies, the adult male flew off with some of it in his beak. He only does this when chicks need to be fed. Going on passed experiences I would say the chicks have hatched less than 4 days ago. Very little food, that I can tell, is being given to the chicks at this time and it was only once yesterday that food was taken to the chicks, but they have hatched nonetheless. Also, the adult male Magpie has been seen more in it's old territory than it's new territory. I'm guessing that the 2 days of rain we had recently brought back the Magpies to their old territory (south side of Douglas Street).

Much earlier in the day (yesterday) my brother Daniel told me he saw 2 crows attacking an Eastern Brown Snake in the paddock opposite the nest of 2 Torresian Crows, on the other side of the road. Daniel did not know if the crows had killed the snake or not and he had no idea that the crows were even nesting. I had to go out yesterday, and before I turned the corner of Douglas and Francis Streets to go onto Francis Street, I saw a crow on the road feeding on a dead rabbit. On closer expection of the rabbit the eyeball was missing. The crow had eaten it. How disgusting!

Turning the corner I tried to see if the snake was dead or not but could not see any signs of a snake. However, on the way home I was actually swooped by these same two Torresian Crows. Well, if you can call it swooping. One of the birds flew from the Tenterfield Creek in the showgrounds area to a gum tree on the ST. Joseph's Catholic Primary School property, at the bottom left of the oval as I got within range of their tree. One of them was sitting on a nest prior to the attack. With 2 birds in the tree one flew over my head about 20-30 feet above me, then sort of lifted it's tail up, flapped it's wings then continued to fly normally. They made no noise when they swooped me. Just before the attack, or during it, I heard a sound that was quiet but weird. It sounded similiar to the noise you hear of dew on an electric fence, creating a slight clicking charge sound. It was a softer sound to that of an electric fence and it was more of a clicking sound than anything else. The second bird swooped me moments later. They both flew onto the Rural Fire Service boudary fence and just sat there doing nothing as I continued to walk passed the area. I was probably less than 150 -200 metres from the said gum tree.  This might actually explain why, several weeks beforehand, I saw a Laughing Kookaburra trying to ransack something in the same gum tree before it was chased out of the tree by one of the crows. Perhaps the kookaburra was trying to take over the crows nest to use it for itself to nest in? I doubt the crows would've had laid eggs back then but I could be wrong.

For probably a week now the Masked Lapwings have stopped swooping. I'm guessing that the juveniles have learnt how to fly and can now flee danger should any come the chicks' way. I am certain that at least 2 breeding pairs of Masked Lapwings have bred this October. The pair that was hanging around the paddock on the corner of Francis and Miles Streets (opposite the showgrounds) that would not move from that paddock have moved on as well. I believe they were nesting too but I avoided that paddock when going on foot into town as they were getting very aggressive in the end. The Lapwings spend most of their time hanging around the Tenterfield Creek or within several hundred metres from the creek.

For the passed 2 days the grey Shrike-thrushes have gone very quite. I have heard one of them calling out at dawn but generally they are quiet throughout the rest of the day. I barely hear a sound from them now. I believe they are sitting on eggs, as of this morning they were still in the area. Within the last 24 hours both birds were seen flying away from their new nest to the creek in a southerly direction. There have been no other sightings of either one of them around my neighbour Carol's back door and I have not seen them flying around my immediate area in the last 4 days.

The Crested Pigeon who was nesting has not been heard lately either. It is still quiet and it has been seen feeding so hopefully there will be chicks running around the place soon. I have checked today if her eggs have hatched or not but can't tell as the female, I think, is still sitting on the nest.

Lastly, to the White-faced Heron... It appears at first glance that the White-faced Heron's nest has been abandoned. As the nest is about 50 feet off the ground it is really hard to see what is on the nest. I also have to move away from the tree to get the right angle just to see any kind of activity on the nest. My hands shake if I hold a camera almost above my head. So, I need to take lots of photos of the nest hoping at least one of them will be crystal clear and not shaky.

Just before sunset tonight I took a few photos of the White-faced Heron's nest, and all are blurry. But the photos reveals that the adult bird is not sitting on eggs anymore and that the eggs have hatched, or at least that's what it looks like. The photo below, despite it being blurry, reveals an adult White-faced Heron doing something similiar to kneeling or standing up in the nest. The bird is to the side of the nest as well. This is a promising sign actually as I have never known White-faced Herons to actually nest in Tenterfield itself.

Red Wattlebird - Tenterfield population: one

Over the passed week I have noticed that the female Red Wattlebird has not returned. The behaviour of the remaining Red Wattlebird has changed, and seems to be making itself a new territory. It has been heard between the Skatepark near Manners Street and Laird & Pelham Streets corner, as well as places in between, especially near the Tenterfield Creek.


Video of the bird eating alone on my neighbour's back lawn.

UPDATE: 2 OCTOBER 2012 - The bird in the video is actually of a juvenile Red Wattlebird, perhaps 2 years of age, identified by the fact that it's tail and tail feathers lean to the left. The other 2 Red Wattlebirds I have observed in the past are adults and more than likely the parents of this Red Wattlebird. The parents have still not been sighted or heard and have more than likely left Tenterfield.

The female Red Wattlebird is back

This bird I can tell is the female by the slightly visible
yellow colouring of feathers between it's legs and a lack of
the same colouring on it's chest.

Today a Red Wattlebird was sighted and I took this photo. At first I thought it was the male but after viewing the photo on my pc it turned out to be the female. I first saw the female fly down for some bread at my neighbour, Carol's, place. The bird stayed for about a minute eating several pieces of bread before being approached by Carol's dog so the bird flew into a tree.

Moments later 2 Red Wattlebirds flew out of the tree and headed in a west north-west direction. I did not see the second Red Wattlebird until the first one flew off. The second bird (the male) did not come down for some bread at all when the female was on the ground.

With the presence of both birds in my neighbour's garden this time of the year can mean many things really. It could mean their eggs hatched and the male is accompanying the female while she alone feeds. It could also mean that the eggs did not hatch or, it could mean the female is mating with another male. Either way the female looked hungry from egg sitting.

Breeding information of the Red Wattlebird

The "unidentified Red Wattlebird" mentioned in this blog was last seen on the 14th August 2012 collecting nesting material (a long strand of plastic-like material) from my grey rug on my clothes line. It's daily visits to my neighbour, Carol's, garden ceased from that moment onward, with only one exception.

Going on the fact that the other Red Wattlebird sighted here is obviously a male, the "unknown Red Wattlebird" must therefore be a female. Information about which gender sits on the eggs see here states that often the female will sit on the eggs alone. This may be the case for the Red Wattlebirds in this area but I am just guessing because the female has only been seen once since 14th August. The male has been sighted more often but his visits are less frequent and no longer on a daily basis. Where their nest  is is anyone's guess as it is not in the immediate area of where I live.

Finding out more information about their breeding cycle is difficult as this pair of Red Wattlebirds do not stay in the immediate area to breed or nest. As the female has less yellow colouring (if any at all) on her belly (I'm still trying to get close up photographs of her especially from underneath her), it is hard to tell if their eggs will even hatch. But going on the activity of the male alone I would say that the eggs did indeed hatch, as he seems more relaxed than the previous 2 weeks. He seems happy but still nervous around other birds when it comes to getting food. Prior to the breeding season the male would happily wait for food to be thrown in his direction, despite the presence of Noisy Miners, and was always quick to get the food. Yesterday, Noisy Miners took the food as he tried to get it, and instead of waiting around he simply flew off and didn't come back down for a second chance at getting the food. The male also does not stay for very long. Normally he would sit on a nearby tree branch, in the tree where Carol's bird feeder is, or on top of the clothes line. He rarely does that now during the breeding season.

The genetic diversity for breeding may be severely reduced as I have not yet seen or heard any other Red Wattlebirds in other areas of Tenterfield when walking about town. I'm sure there are more Red Wattlebirds somewhere in Tenterfield (or nearby) but I have just yet to see or hear any of them. I hope there are more anyway.

On this website it states that the (eggs) incubation period is 14 - 16 days and and the young birds fledge at about 15 - 18 days. So, in theory, anywhere from the 17th September onwards I should start seeing juvenile Red Wattlebirds with their parents in the area again. It is now a waiting game!

Videos of Red Wattlebird

A female Red Wattlebird?

This bird was spotted in my neighbour's backyard within minutes of spotting the first Red Wattlebird a few days ago. However, this bird is slightly longer than the bird I have identified as a Red Wattlebird. The grey coloured Wattlebird made no sounds during my sighting of it and I've only ever seen one of this bird at any given sighting.

Whilst doing an Google image search for Red Wattlebirds, there are plain looking grey coloured Red Wattlebirds that do not appear to have a noticable yellow belly. However, I need to get a better closeup of this particular bird so I can identify it more accurately.

Red Wattlebird Anthochaera carunculata

Red Wattlebird call

Yesterday I was surprised to see this bird again. It took me a while to identify the bird but in the videos I have of this bird I believe it to be a Red Wattlebird.

The video below was taken around 4:45pm close to sunset. There were many birds in my neighbour's back yard, this bird being one of them. To identify the Red Wattlebird's call from all the other bird calls in this video, listen for the loudest yet shortest calls. The bird spends most of its time preening itself in the video then getting annoyed, perhaps, by the Eastern Rosellas.