Stitching the Tailor bird's nest

Oh yes, I did and I continue to do every time one more leaf becomes dry and detaches itself from the branch supporting the nest. As of now all the original leaves that were used to build the nest have turned completely brown and have broken off from the main branch.

The nest is being supported by the adjacent leaves I have used to stitch the nest to. Contrary to popular belief touching the nest doesn't make the mother leave the nest. Actually it seems to know me and even when I approach does not fly away unless I am real close to the nest.



You can actually see the brown thread I have used to stitch the leaves at the bottom right of the image.

Here is an old nest whose leaves have turned completely brown. I wonder if this nest raised a family. For Chaithu it was a nice item for his "show-and-tell" at school.


One more thing. All this time I had been mistaking the Common Tailorbird to be the Prinia. My sister-in-law was right. It is the common tailor bird and not the Prinia. I read on Wikipedia that it takes only 14 days to hatch the eggs but this one has been sitting on the eggs for almost 21 days.

Meanwhile a sunbird also tried to build a nest in my garden. The Sunbird, a relative of the bee-humming bird, makes loud noises at it constructs its nest. The nest is more sophisticated with a hood unlike the tailor bird's nest and it doesn't stitch any leaves but instead uses branches and twigs to suspend it's nest. But even before complete construction, the nest was ransacked, probably by some predator. The nest was poorly concealed.

The Prinia and its nest outside my window

It has been a bird-watching delight starting with the nest building and now with the incubation in progress.

First the bird that I am referring. The pic is poor but this is the best I could do with my point and shoot.



After some research I think it is the Ashy Prinia also known as the Wren Warbler. It's a tiny bird with very quick reflexes and can be distracted with the slightest disturbance or human intervention.

The nest that it built in two days. There are two leaves on top that it stitched weaving threads out of cobwebs and puncturing holes in the leaves using its beak and sewing them using the cobweb threads. There are two leaves on top and a third below.



Next the eggs that it laid, one per day. Here is the first one.



Using the blurred image of my finger as a scale, you must estimate the tiny size of the eggs. Two on the next day.


And then there were three.


A better view of the three eggs.


And then there were four.


The bird is currently incubating the eggs now. Will keep track of the progress and report the same.