Home in a cobweb

Ingenuity of sunbirds:

by K.G.H. Munidasa

Among our resident birds the Purple Sunbird has earned a place for itself by the wonderful ingenuity it displays in the selection of nesting sites.

Not only that it is found to build its pear-shaped nests of fibre in the most unusual locations, but also to spend a blissful family life in them.

In my notebook there is a record of a nest having been placed in a bird-lover's trouser pocket, by a pair of sunbirds on the hunt for nesting sites. Of course, the trouser was hung on a clothesline in his verandah, to dry after use.

On another occasion a pair of sunbirds successfully raised to maturity a brood of chicks in a nest built among the folds of a threadbare face towel I had left in a coir line outside my storeroom. A sunbird's nest I once examined at the invitation of a friend was in his bedroom in close proximity to a twin bed.

Nest in cobwebs

The hen sunbird had come through the window and built the nest on a clothesline, while the occupants of the house watched in amazement.

In the dry zone one would often find the Purple Sunbirds nesting in masses of cobwebs built by the sociable spider known to science as Stegodyphus sarasinorum, in low thorn bushes.

Here the hen would simply presse a hole on to the side of the cobweb mass and lay her clutch on a scanty lining of vegetable down. In February 1968 I placed on record with the Bombay Natural History Society the following case, which I presumed was an all-time achievement for a pair of wild birds: We were then living at an off-the beaten track village in the Eastern Province.

One afternoon, I noticed a female sunbird clinging on to a night gown left on a GI wire clothesline in the backyard. After meddling with the fabric between the folds of the gown, she flew away.

A closer look revealed that she was apparently trying to build a nest and I found a small collection of cobwebs with three empty spider egg cocoons there. It was late that day to make any further observations, and in the night my wife removed the gown.

The following morning, before leaving for work, I placed an old canvas (type commonly used in deck chairs) on the clothesline and arranged it in such a way to leave two well-defined folds. In between the folds I made a fairly deep pocket using office pins.

Building commences

When I returned home in the evening I found the sunbird had started a nest in the 'pocket', using her own building materials. She stuffed the inside profusely with cotton collected from a Kapok tree growing at the edge of the garden.

A week later two speckled eggs were laid in the chamber and the hen started sitting. The nest was in the centre of the wire, hardly two feet off the ground. Late one afternoon strong wind blew the canvas to the far end of the wire, but without any ill-effects. I dragged it back into position again. The brooding hen was quite tame by then and did not heed such disturbances.

A fortnight later the eggs were successfully hatched, when the cock sunbird started paying frequent visits on the family. Before this he hardly came near the nest and spent his time on one of two selected lookouts, 25-30 yards from the site, which provided an unobstructed view of the nest site.

However, he never failed to send out a warning to the hen in nest whenever anyone passed close to her brooding chamber. Nevertheless, the hen took little or no notice of these warning signals.

Once I accidentally brushed against the nest and she was not alarmed. But if I ever looked at her hard she got excited and nervy. At night I occasionally flashed my torch-light to find her sitting very close with her beak drawn in.

After the brood was a few days old the cock played a prominent role in fending for them and appeared to be very much attached to the family. Every time he fed the young he removed a beak-full of their droppings for disposal.

By about the fifth day the young started to fledge and were completely so about the fourteenth day after their birth.

They were coloured exactly like their mother, perhaps a little darker in the upper parts. But the yellow on the chin and upper breast was brighter in comparison.

Leaving home

One sunny afternoon, about a fortnight later, on impulse I took one of the chicks out but it soon freed itself from my grip and flew away.

It was with much difficulty that I recaptured it and put it back in the nest. On its own the same chick left the nest once more and I had to run all over the garden to get it.

Early the following morning the same chick had left the nest without our knowledge and when my nephew walked up to investigate the other chick too, left the nest chamber and winged away to the nearby shrub jungle, followed by the parent birds.

During the next couple of days the family stayed in and around our home garden and the chirping of the young could be heard off and on throughout the day.