Breeding Birds

As we are approaching the time when birds start to think about continuing their species I thought I would take a look at what the existing records tell  us about the timing of breeding in Carwoola.

I have got 428 Breeding records (widely defined: see below) of which 349 have been coded to month and type of event.  I have compacted the type of event into 3 categories

1. Pre-nesting: display, copulation, inspecting hollow and nest building (59 records)
2. Nesting: Nest with eggs; nest with young, on nest, carrying food (116 records)
3. Dependent young. (174 records).

The distribution of these broad groups through the year is illustrated below.

This does to a large extent follow common sense: pre-nesting activities peak first (August- September), then the nesting phase (October - November) and then dependent young in December January.  The dependent young recorded after February may be second broods (or more likely what I refer to as indolent young: capable of looking after themselves but prefer to bludge off the olds - this term is not recognised by the birding hierarchy).