Rifleman Series: Part 3 - Egg Laying

The forest that I'm working in is not only breath-taking, but also breath-giving. There is not a lot of traffic here. Most of the days we have the forest all to ourselves. We walk along the paths, listen for birds, and live the life of bushwomen. It is pretty serene here.

The tītipounamu is a great model of a hardworking bird. And they are just 6-8 grams! It is still pretty cold in October. Even when the nest is almost done, the male hasn’t stopped working. While feeding himself, he also generously feeds his partner while her body is preparing for egg laying. (I have never seen their copulation behaviour, so I don’t know when does it happen, probably around this time.) He coos her with his slow and sweet words, and she accepts his offerings of food.

This is called nuptial feeding or gifting. The male bird feeds his partner sometimes at his own cost. Soon, she will lay 2-5 eggs, each 1/8th the size of her body. And she lays them one every 48 hours. So if she lays a full clutch, it takes 8-10 days! All this time, she still goes out and about feeding herself, knowing that she will spend the next couple of weeks with less time to eat. Did you know that the colour of bird eggs are ‘applied’ at the end of the egg forming process? Like a paint job that is sprayed on your car. The tītipounamu egg is almost completely white, which tiny speckles all around the egg.

Another new skill I gained while working here is bird banding. We band the birds with unique colour combinations so that we can identify individuals. This is especially useful for this species because they have overlapping home ranges. After releasing them, the next step is to be able to ID them in the field. Our birds are banded with 3 colours and one compulsory metal band with a unique code printed on it. Here's a photo of a bird being banded.

It is quite fun and challenging to read and memorize all the colour combos of pairs, and related individuals. Who needs computer apps for brain training exercises when we have real-life practice in the forest? They are such small birds and they move fast. Following small, high-pitched birds around while carrying heavy equipment also started giving me shoulder and back problems. At the same time, we have to pay attention to the colour bands to identify individuals. But all these probably made me fitter, and definitely more alert.

Once the female has started laying eggs in the nest, they will not willingly abandon it, so they are very careful not to reveal their location. In the next blog post in this series, I will talk about the art of incubation and the silencing of tītipounamu. Stay tuned for 8th Feb!