——– Original Message ——– Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Photo ID: Welcome Swallow nests? From: brian fleming <flambeau@labyrinth.net.au> To: David Adams <dpadams@gmail.com> Fairy Martins always prefer to nest in a colony. I have seen hundreds of nests in the old woolshed at Kinchega Park – the migrant birds had just returned and were re-occupying the old nests – though one nest had been invaded by a pair of Striated Pardalotes and were fighting for it. They typically nest in a rock overhang or against a sloping tree, (as I saw near Lake Eyre) but they adopt human construction readily – bridges, culverts, mine-shafts and drives. The nests should never be destroyed, even if occasionally occupied by snakes. It saves the birds a lot of time and energy to re-use rather than re-build, and many other species roost in them in winter – or so I have been told Bottle Swallow refers to the flask-shape of the nest – their country name still in many places. The cup shaped nests could well be Welcome Swallows’ nests – they often build in the same places. Incidentally the species was discovered by John Gould c. 1840 when staying in an inn in Maitland, NSW – he put his head out of the window and observed the nests built under the window-ledges and a previously undescribed species of bird flying in and out. Anthea Fleming On 3/11/2013 12:57 PM, David Adams wrote: > Thanks, I’ve had another off-list answer of Fairy Martin’s as well…and > both of you mentioned the name Bottle Swallows which I’m now guessing is > based on the nest shape. The cup-shaped nests look like Welcome Swallow > nests to me, are the tube (bottle) nests the Fairy Martins? We get them > around here (far south coast of NSW) but I don’t remember ever seeing a > Fairy Martin nest. Is it typical for these species to nest in the same spot? > > Thanks! > =============================== > > To unsubscribe from this mailing list, > send the message: > unsubscribe > (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) > to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au > > http://birding-aus.org > =============================== > > > > —– > No virus found in this message. > Checked by AVG – www.avg.com > Version: 2013.0.3426 / Virus Database: 3222/6804 – Release Date: 11/02/13 =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au http://birding-aus.org ===============================