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Nesting Red-capped Plovers

10,000 Birds

We have also observed pairs of Pied Oystercatchers choosing sand over rocks and each pair appears to use the same strategy year after year. Red-capped Plover nest We have mostly observed Red-capped Plover nests with two eggs, so she may well have laid another egg by now.

Eggs 173
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Backyard Birdfeeder Bragging Rights, a Great Adventure for a Great Twitch, and More: This Week in Birding News

10,000 Birds

Could scientists use weather radar data to track the spread of avian influenza, and thereby help poultry growers protect their flocks? contemplating the pretty blue eggs are American Robins are soon to lay is a good coping strategy.). (To see some in action, check out Bella Hummingbird’s site on Explore.org !).

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The Endangered Andean Flamingo

10,000 Birds

The highly specialized foraging strategy of flamingos makes them vulnerable to the effect of subtle changes in habitat quality. Egg harvesting to sell as food was intensive then, with thousands taken annually from the breeding colonies in Chile. Egg collection for local consumption still continues at lower scale.

Chile 154
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Pied Oystercatcher nesting

10,000 Birds

To the north they are very unlucky with predation before the eggs even hatch out, but to the south the eggs hatch out and then the predation occurs on the chicks. The main problem appears to be feral cats, but there is also predation from birds of prey and the parent Pied Oystercatchers do their utmost to protect their young.

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Northern Potoo

10,000 Birds

Besides the avian attributes of flight, feathers and laying eggs, potoos are quite possibly the most unbird-like birds in the world. Another really bizarre attribute of the potoos is their seemingly casual behavior of laying eggs on bare branches without any attempt to build nests.

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Pied Oystercatchers breeding in Broome

10,000 Birds

The first eggs were laid in the first week of July, which is the case each year. The eggs take 28 days to hatch and it is then at least 35 days before the chicks are developed enough to fly and there have been problems with predation as in other years. Pied Oystercatcher sitting on eggs in the nudist area of Cable Beach.

Breeding 158
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Outstanding Pied Oystercatcher parenting!

10,000 Birds

There is egg predation, chick loss and sometimes possibly just some “bad parenting”! One pair of Pied Oystercatchers laid eggs the first year and did not appear to realise they were supposed to sit on them, but they have since learnt it is an essential part of rearing a chick and they have done so since.

Eggs 165