Remove Cattle Remove Eggs Remove Strategy
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Birding Shanghai in May 2023 – Part 1

10,000 Birds

During the breeding season, some Cattle Egrets look like teenage girls who have just discovered the existence of make-up, and consequently massively overdo it. But what do I know about the taste preferences of Cattle Egrets. While having somebody else raise your chicks like an attractive strategy to me, it is not without dangers.

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Birding Shanghai in May 2023 – Part 2

10,000 Birds

The Large-billed Crow ( video ) is one of the natural enemies – in the study above, it predated 19 eggs from four pitta nests. And how do Fairy Pittas get injured and possibly die? This should not be a problem in Shanghai as the pitta has not been reported to breed here. Is it worth a scientific paper if a Large-billed Crow eats a fish?

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Birding Shanghai in July 2022

10,000 Birds

I have written about the interesting sex life of these jacanas a few times already (short version: female mates with male, lays a bunch of eggs for him to incubate and raise the chicks, leaves him, finds another male, repeat). Apparently, after a male first mates with a female, he throws out the first one or two eggs she lays in their nest.

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