Chaos with nesting sites

The first branch that came down on 12 August 2012

About a week and a half ago my neighbour, Carol, had a Weeping Willow (tree) branch come down in her garden. That was the second branch from the same tree within a month. The recent branch falling down resulted in the near demolition of the Superb Fairy-Wren's nest in her backyard. The large main branches missed the bush completely. Only the small pencil thickness branches landed across the bush. The tree branch didn't do any major damage to any garden plants but it did restrict the Superb Fairy-Wrens from entering the bush where their nest was.

The entire Weeping Willow tree is being cut down and removed today and soon will be replaced by another tree. It is being removed because the tree has been affected by borers and all the main branches are rotten on the inside.

As a result the Superb Fairy-Wrens abandoned the bush they were nesting in and took over (probably by force) the nesting sites of the Red-browed Finches. I spotted the Superb Fairy-Wrens flying from Carol's Wattle tree to their new nesting site. They may have been collecting nesting material from the Wattle tree or just feeding their nesting partners on the nest. Either way, the birds were flying from the Wattle tree to the new nest area rather quickly and consistently.

Here are some photos of these birds in the immediate area of the Wattle tree which were taken on the 31 August 2012.

The male Superb Fairy-Wren

One of the female Superb Fairy-Wrens

There were a few days where I did not see the Red-browed Finches at all in Carol's garden but late yesterday afternoon I spotted them down by the creek. It appears they have moved into a small bush near their old nesting site. Their new nesting site is not as green as the old one, nor as big or well protected from predators but I am glad to see that they are still in the area.

Red-browed Finch Neochmia temporalis

In this picture there are 6 Red-browed Finches. The very top one looks like a juvenile; 3 of them look like males; one I can't identify as it is in the shade; and one (center - the left bird in the row of 3 birds) looks like it could be a female.

I went to visit my neighbour, Carol, today to help her with some gardening. It was sunny but there was an icy cold wind blowing. To my surprise there were about 30 - 50 tiny little birds on her front verandah steps as I turned the corner into her front yard. The little birds flew into the trees. I started video recording them when they flew back to the ground but Carol's dog barked until he realised it was me and scared them back to the trees. I was too far away from the little birds to get a good video of them. I needed to get closer to them but couldn't right that moment. So I went inside following Carol's dog instead.

Anyway, after a while I went back outside and tried taking some photos of the little birds. I zoomed into the max but I still couldn't make out what bird species they were, until I got home after dark and uploaded the pics to my pc.

These little birds are called Red-browed Finches. In close proximity to these birds they are about the same size as a Weebill, which is pretty small. As these birds were so small it was very hard to identify them. They moved very quickly, hopping here and there and kept flying into the bare trees. It was challenging to get a decent video or photo of them to say the least.

Below are the two videos I recorded of these birds before they eventually got chased away by the Willy Wagtail (see 2nd video).