I just discovered that my favourite tailorbirds are building their nest in my Hibiscus plant which was in a busy locale - my portico. This doubles up as the play area for my son, I have my Budgie Cage there and to top it all off, that is the favourite corner for my Doggie, Brownie. I could not believe my eyes when I saw the pair buzzing around building their nest.
At last they had forgiven me!
I had done something foolish and did not even realise it for a long time! Since my Hibiscus plants were getting badly infected by mealy bugs, I had used some neem oil and dish wash liquid to get rid of them. I got rid of mealy bugs. But that drove my tailorbirds away too. Oh how they must have hated me for that! They have been visiting The Tree for over a decade and the hibiscus bushes all around my house made an ideal place for them to hunt insects and play around. They are the Common Indian Tailor Bird species (Orthotomus sutorius). They are abour 5 inches head to tail. They feed primarily on insects.
I did not even realise they were not visiting my garden for quite some time. I envied my neighbour who seldom cared about her plant, but her hibiscus were seemingly not affected by mealybugs while I had to constantly spray all kinds of concoctions to keep my hibiscus healthy. Inspite of all that ants just kept bringing more mealy bugs to my plants as soon the spray started wearing off. And that had me thinking. How is it that the garden on the other-side always seemed to be bug-free? I realised my good old friends were doing the trick for my pesky neighbour.
I started missing my Tailor birds. I could see them playing in my neighbour's garden, but they refused to come to mine. I was deploying all kinds of tactics to win them over. Then it struck me.
It must be the insecticide spray!
That must have been keeping the tailorbirds away. So I stopped spraying and frequently washed my plants. But still those cheeky fellows refused to forgive me.
Then one fine morning when I was feeding my Budgies, I saw a pair of tailorbirds sitting on my hibiscus shrub and tentatively looking around. An hour later it looked as if the female decided to build her nest in my hibiscus. I was surprised that they chose such a high-traffic location. The nest was just about a feet from the ground. My doggie seemed to be aware of their plans. She does not seem to disturb the birds and neither do they seem to be scared of her. In fact, we have seen them resting in the lowest branch just above Brownie's Kennel. Brownie has the habit of chasing anything that moves within the compound, be it a cat, or crow or other intruders. She somehow seem to not mind tailorbirds. They seem to get along very well. May be the tailorbirds chose my garden because Brownie would not let cats approach their nest. Looks like Brownie is their security guard.
The day is August 29, 2008. The Tailorbirds - we still have not named them - started to build their nest. They must have completed about 50% of the task when it started raining. We felt sad. I am not sure if the birdie chose the best place to nest as it seems to be exposed. My four year old son seemed a lot worried that the nest might be washed away in the downpour. I was worried that they might abandon the nest. With a heavy heart, we went to bed, hoping that the nest can withstand the onslaught.
August 30, 2008
As soon as I was up today, I went to have a peep at the nest. To my surprise, not only was the nest not even wet on the inside, the would-be parents were very busy continuing with the construction. I did not want to disturb them. So I provided a fresh supply of dried grass etc from the Budgie's cage, which the tailor birds seem to prefer for the nesting material and left them to help themselves.
To think that our whole family went to bed so worried about the nest! They seem to be stronger than us. And better in building houses. We have a lot to learn from them. By the end of the day it looked as if they had completed their nest.
Now only the female frequented the place. The male seemed to only help build the nest. Looks like his job was done and he was not around most of the time.
For the next two days, I did not see the birdies fluttering around. Worried that they may have abandoned the nest, I went and peeped in. I saw two eggs in the nest. There they were two cute small spotted eggs. The mother added two more eggs over the next two days. My son was so excited on seeing the eggs. The birdies did come and go often. They don't seem to mind having us around. We are happy that they have adapted so well to our noisy, high-traffic locale.
September 7, 2008
It has been a week of peeping, taking pictures, videos, keeping a watch on our maid and others so that they do not disturb them. The mother is brooding. And we are waiting for the eggs to hatch. Our whole house-hold is awaiting the advent of the new additions.
As the week progressed, our Birdie (the male does not seem to come now) has become so accustomed to living with us, that she does not even bother to fly away if I or my son peep into her nest. She just looks back at us. She flies away only if i get my camera too close to her. I do have a good camera - a Canon A360. But it has only 4x zoom. I need to get some better lens to get good pictures of my birdies. I should remind myself to get one soon.
We are all awaiting the birth of her chicks...
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