I was looking over my plants and flowers today. Some are doing well in monsoon, and some have rotted away.
On one of my plants (above) I noticed leaves that had white spots. I figured it was insect damage of some sort, and that I should probably pinch off those leaves.
As I approached, I realized that the leaves were glued together -- again, I presumed insects. But something fairly large, since these leaves are about 15 cm (6 inches) long. When I peeked inside, this is what I found:
A tiny bird's nest. The nest is 4-5 cm across (about 2 inches), and the cavity is about 2 cm (1 inch) in diameter.
I'll have to keep watching and see if I can find out what kind of bird made this nest -- it's hummingbird size. But as I just found out, hummingbirds are strictly New World.
Update:
Turns out it's most likely a Common Tailorbird nest. After spending about 2 hours going through my huge "A Guide to the Birds of India", I finally googled "nest India leaves small" and after eliminating the references to ants (should have added "bird" to the list), the second link was to a Wikipedia article and the words "Popular for its nest made of leaves "sewn" together and immortalized by … " made it sound like a good match. Ta Da! The nest photo cinched it. Common tailorbird it is. (Other possibilities include grey-breasted prinia and ashy prinia, but the tailorbird seems to match the best. I still haven't actually seen the birds.)
Here's one more picture of the nest showing how the leaf above was attached to provide an "umbrella" to keep the monsoon rains off the nest.
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| This plant had very fragrant flowers when I bought it. It hasn't bloomed since. But it is doing very well! |
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| The white fluffy stuff attracted my attention. |
A tiny bird's nest. The nest is 4-5 cm across (about 2 inches), and the cavity is about 2 cm (1 inch) in diameter.
I'll have to keep watching and see if I can find out what kind of bird made this nest -- it's hummingbird size. But as I just found out, hummingbirds are strictly New World.
Update:
Turns out it's most likely a Common Tailorbird nest. After spending about 2 hours going through my huge "A Guide to the Birds of India", I finally googled "nest India leaves small" and after eliminating the references to ants (should have added "bird" to the list), the second link was to a Wikipedia article and the words "Popular for its nest made of leaves "sewn" together and immortalized by … " made it sound like a good match. Ta Da! The nest photo cinched it. Common tailorbird it is. (Other possibilities include grey-breasted prinia and ashy prinia, but the tailorbird seems to match the best. I still haven't actually seen the birds.)
Here's one more picture of the nest showing how the leaf above was attached to provide an "umbrella" to keep the monsoon rains off the nest.
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