Crested Pigeon nesting
Crested Pigeon
About three weeks ago I was walking the estate. (We live on a five acre block on the edge of town.)
As I passed a row of Hakea multilineata bushes I checked thoroughly for any bird nests. These bushes, which are about four metres high, often host pigeon or honeyeater families.
Sure enough, a Crested Pigeon was sitting on a nest. I quietly crept away, knowing how easily pigeons can be disturbed from their nests. Sadly, when I checked back last week, the nest was abandoned. Even sadder was the half grown chick hanging from a fork in a branch. It was dead.
Hakea multilineata
Something must have disturbed this young chick which then tried to escape, only to hang itself. The culprit could have been an Australian Magpie (they are feeding young at present), a Grey Currawong ( who will take young from a nest to feed its own), a Brown Falcon (which has been harassing the local birds recently) or even a Little Raven.
On another sad note, today when working in the scrub I found the wing of an adult Crested Pigeon. There was no evidence of who had taken this poor creature.
Nature in the raw can seem so cruel. But then – I could name a few humans who are not exactly innocent of cruelty.
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I have only ever seen one nesting of the Crested Pigeon, and that was in a Leptospermum in my front garden when I lived in town. The tree was in a corner near the front porch and I could see the nest without touching the tree.
A cat got the first nestlings. She nested again. A cat got the second nestlings, as well as one of the parent birds.
But cat-owners will defiantly say “but MY cat doesn’t hunt wildlife”, every time.
Gaye
Good point Gaye. As I said on another post only a few days ago – cats have no place in the Australian environment. Pet cats are bad enough, but I’ve seen feral cats in the Flinders Ranges (northern SA) that are so big they’d scare a large dog. The damage they do day in day out must be horrendous.
Crested Pigeons are quite resilient; they will nest over and over throughout the year. Around here they seem to be always breeding and are very successful at it. When we moved here about 25 years ago we were lucky to see more than two or three at one time. Now it is quite common to see 20 – 30 or more sitting in a row on the power lines. On one occasion I counted 57 in a row.
I’m in an inner city industrial suburb of Sydney. I have a crested pigeon nesting in a potted fig I have which is about 5 metres tall. It was top heavy and blew over in a storm spilling the eggs and shattering them. I dramatically thinned the branches thinking the nest would be abandoned but the pigeon is back but without as much cover as she used to have. We’re assuming she’s laying again. We have a loud hyperactive dog in the yard who will keep cats away and doesn’t seem to bother the pigeon. We’re hoping this time we’ll get chicks.
Hi there Francis – thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.
I wouldn’t be too worried. Crested Pigeons would have to be one of our most prolific breeding species of bird. Where I live they seem to be constantly breeding.
Sometimes I wonder how they manage to survive despite their enthusiasm to breed. Quite often the nest is so flimsy it is a wonder that the eggs actually stay in the nest.
In my front yard, I have two very tall, dead hakeas. I was going to have them cut down and taken away. For about a month now, at different times of the day I would hear bird calls from the shrubbery and looked in vain to see what was making the noise.
To my surprise and delight I discovered yesterday that it is a crested pigeon that has built a nest right in the fork of a hakea branch. The nest is very thin and I could see the light through it but not any eggs. However, the pigeon appears to be nesting so presumably there are eggs.
Thinking back I recall that we had one solitary crested pigeon often scratching and pecking around the bark chips in my garden for much of the earlier part of the year. I take it this may be the same one who has taken a liking to my garden.
I am very keen to find out more about this bird and its habits. Love the feeling of providing some respite from the ravages of the environment for our birdlife!
It has made me very keen to find out more about these friendly,
Hi there Ruth,
Sorry it has taken me so long to reply to your comments.
The Crested Pigeons is one of my favourite birds. I often write about them on this blog. If you want to learn more about them, go to my archives here:
http://www.trevorsbirding.com/?s=crested+pigeon
Some of the articles may not have much relevance, but others you should find interesting.
Enjoy.