Saturday, October 4, 2008

Red-whiskered Bulbul - Nest and Egg

In early August when I received a pair of Red-whiskered Bulbuls to try to breed them, they were already starting to moult around the face. I expected that they would go into moult but they built a nest and raised a chick. See: http://davidsbirds.blogspot.com/2008/08/breeding-red-whiskered-bulbul_23.html

After the first nest they started to moult. However, I was surprised to find the female going onto the nest one morning. The pair have now completed their moult but I did not want them the have another nest now so I removed the nest. There was an egg inside. It is smaller than a shama egg but I don't know if this was because the fertility of female was deteriorating as she was moulting. My shama eggs normally have brown and/or blue splotches. The Red-whiskered Bulbul's eggs have purplish splotches. The photo of the nest and egg are below: