Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker: 3. Nest taking shape

Earlier posts: 1. Introduction; 2. Dangling nesting materials.

Day three (4th January) of the Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker (Dicaeum cruentatum) nest building saw the female again busy all morning bringing nesting materials to the nesting site. The mass of untidy nesting materials was slowly taking on the shape of an oval nest with an opening towards the top (below). However, the wall needed more nesting materials.

The female flowerpecker arrived regularly, landing on a leaf near the nest. As always, she was careful to see whether she was watched before darting to the nest entrance to deposit the nesting material (below). At times she landed on the nest entrance, then entered the nest. Inside the nest she moved around to shape the egg chamber, to end up facing the entrance, whereupon she flew off. Sometimes she arrived without any nesting materials and entered the nest to rearrange things.

The 3 hours of video documentation during the morning, starting at 0845 hours, showed an average of 30 visits per hour. Of the total 91 visits, only 2 were by the male. The most the male did was to peep into the nest.

Towards the latter part of the morning the nest took on a better shape as can be seen in the edited video below.