What happens next - A Buzz of Activities that brings you Joy and Awakens your Curiosity
A lot of things happened after that. After I installed the nest box I had been curious like everyone of you. It has become a daily routine to observe what happens next; will the birds identify the nest and occupy it or would it be empty for a long time
Exploring
It took a few days for the birds to understand they can build a nest in this box. Finding the box was easy for them as there are a lot of sparrows in this area. In the first few days they explored the nest box, hovered around it, and perched on the roof of the box and the support structures around the nest
Usually, it is the male sparrow that starts nest building activity. It will identify suitable site for nest building, once it finalizes the site it starts visiting the site daily and advertises about the nest by constantly chirping to attract a potential mate. It repeats this process until a female sparrow arrives at the nest site and they both reach an agreement to build the nest there
Females in the vicinity visit the nest and they too observe it. If they like the male and the nesting site, they form a pair and there after they start defending their nest
They visit the nest everyday, mostly early in the morning. The male arrives first and spends time exploring the nest and the female arrives sometime later. Both of them get aquainted with each other and also the surroundings, this activity continues for a few days and in this process they ensure the nest is safe
After a long wait, one fine day the female arrives and they explore the nest box together
The biggest challenge now is to get in to the nest hole, after several attempts for a few days they manage to perch directly near the hole. Next, they carefully peep in to the nest by getting half of their body in and they do this several times to ensure then can get in and out of the nest hole without any trouble
Once they manage to get inside the nest, they spend a lot of time around the nest and observe all the activities about other birds and us. They slowly acclimatize themselves to this new habitat
Acclimatizing
After acclimatizing, they visit the nest daily, spend some time around and then one fine day they get started with nest building activities. It takes days as they must find the material and transport it in to the nest daily
Nest Building
They initially start small, but as days progress the activity becomes rigorous. The use long grass, hey, coir and sometimes even artificial material like plastic thread
I used to provide some fresh coconut fiber around the nest; they immediately utilized it. I used to wrap a bunch of fibers with a thread so that they can pull the fibers one by one
I have also noticed they used fresh leaves sometimes
Once they build the nest with hard material like grass and fiber or coir, they start bringing feathers (down feathers) to make the top portion of the nest soft and to keep it warm
Raising the Young and Challenges
While all this was happening, a few other things were going on in the backdrop. Another sparrow pair completed nest building and started raising their young
Curious pigeons in the neighborhood decided to observe what the sparrows are raising
If you observe this nest, it is nothing but a hole in the wall to take the air conditioner pipes in and out of the room. Astonishingly, this is the amount of space they need to raise their young. In the olden days, such spaces were easily available for sparrows. They used to make nest in the holes in the walls that were not closed, or the spaces in the ventilators and crevices between walls
In the modern-day construction, such spaces are very hard to find as we tend to make our homes more secure. That is the reason we must put nest boxes, so that birds like sparrows can make nests, raise their young and continue the species
This sparrow pair had to abandon that nest after the first cycle because of the pigeon menace
Where did this pair make their nest before pigeon menace?
It is here, the hole in the wall in my place
If everything was good, why did they leave this place for the other place with pigeon menace
There is a serious reason for that. Initially when they started here, they used to raise two to three young ones at a time, but one time they had four hatchlings and this space was too small to accommodate them. One day one chick fell on the floor in the balcony and the parents felt this nest is not safe any more and finally they abandoned
All three nests for a perspective. This is how they transitioned from one nest to the other. You can see the first old nest, the second nest with pigeon menace and the third nest which is the nest box I installed
Of course, by the time I installed the nest box, the old sparrow pair left the place forever
It is a new pair that started in this nest box and they thrived here and raised many young till date
Other Species in the Neighborhood
Now, we know the sparrows are thriving. There are other species also that live around us
A dusky crag martin was gathering wet mud from the space between the tiles to build its nest. We can see another dusky crag martin resting in the nest and also an empty nest
If you observe more carefully, you will also find insects like the dung beetle trying to make a living. Be careful not to step on them. They also play a very important role in our ecosystem
In this vast universe, Earth is a speck of dust and we call that speck of dust our home and it is the whole world to us
For smaller species like birds, insects and worms, a few square metres of area surrounding us constitutes their habitat. We should respect their space just as we expect others to respect ours
Live and Let Live