Like many of us, I love flowers although I rarely pick them to arrange inside. I started this post at the end of last year and then put it to one side. So, from the ‘draft folder’ is a short but rather nice reminder of a happy nesting event.
Pigeon orchids – Ceraia saaronica – flower in response to heavy rainfall. While the onset of the wet season rains are a good trigger we also see sporadic flowering at other times after rain.
In recent months at least two pairs of Black Butcherbirds have produced 3 offspring in the vicinity of our house garden. Of course the adults have been very busy hunting – frogs, lizards, snakes and fledgling birds are all on the menu – which means that the diminutive Sunbirds, like many of our small birds, are faced with quite a challenge to find a sufficiently camouflaged nesting site.
In our early years here, prior to our revegetation efforts, the rather sparse garden supported very few birds so we delighted in the Sunbirds nesting close to the house, often on our verandah. Sunbirds build beautiful hanging nests with a side entrance and they will suspend them from anything that takes their fancy. The plastic coated clothes-line proved impossible (thank goodness as it would have been most inconvenient) but any rope left hanging was irresistible to them.
In recent years, as our general bird population has increased, it has become too risky for the Sunbirds to use such an exposed area as the verandah, which is regularly patrolled by Butcherbirds who have taken advantage of many unwary frogs and lizards. Although we don’t find sunbird nests near our house now, they are breeding successfully and this year we have been enjoying the sight of a young male who has been feeding on Heliconia ‘Sexy Pink’ which is adjacent to our outdoor shower – we have also observed him drinking from the shower rose when a few drips remain.
This is the only Heliconia allowed to grow in our garden, which is in the residential exclusion zone of the Wild Wings & Swampy Things Nature Refuge. It does take some maintenance to look its best but it is not as rampant as some varieties …. and the flowers’ popularity with the Sunbirds makes it worthwhile.
Hopefully the young fellow will manage to avoid predators and live long enough to gain the glorious colours of a mature male.
Allen
Barbara
Wild Wings & Swampy Things 