Red Wattlebird nesting?

Red Wattlebird

While having breakfast a few days ago my wife and I were fascinated by the antics of two of our resident Red Wattlebirds (a species of honeyeater). They were cavorting around in the melaleuca bushes a few metres from our sun room.

Now - don’t get me wrong. When I say ‘cavorting’ I do not mean that they were up to any hanky-panky. THAT obviously had already happened, I’d say.

This pair was busily swinging on twigs trying to break them off the bush. Every time one came off they would then fly directly to a eucalypt tree about forty metres away.

Ah-ha - nest building thinks I. Reasonably logical conclusion, I thought. So after  breakfast I wandered casually over to said tree to investigate.

What? No nest! I was perplexed. I could find nothing. Mmm… perhaps they are quite clever at disguising the nest in the outer foliage. Not sure what they were up to if they weren’t nest building.

UPDATE: I went and had another look just now. Clever birds. It was there all the time, not in the tree where they were flying, but in the two metre high bush under the tree. Very sneaky.

Red Wattlebird