Keeping it clean

Everyone knows that the main job for adult birds is to keep their chicks fed. It is a never ending job.

A pair of White-throated Treecreepers (Cormobates leucophaea) has taken up residence in a local nest box. They are a small bird distributed along the east coast of Australia from Cooktown around to Adelaide. Treecreepers are insectivorous and often seen climbing up the trunks of trees looking for insects, mainly ants. At the moment the adults are busy feeding the young. Every one and a half to two minutes the parents leave the nest box only to return to the box bringing food (pictured left).

The other major task confronting adult birds is keeping the nest clean of the waste that the chicks generate. This is particularly true for birds that breed in enclosed nests. The chicks excrete a translucent gelatinous membrane containing all the excrement which the parent picks up and removes from the nest, pictured right. This appears to happen after every second feeding visit.

Of course if you live in an open nest like White-winged Choughs (Corcorax melanorhamphos) adults can save a lot of effort by teaching the young to poo over the side of the nest, pictured below.