Nesting woes of the purple-rumped Sunbird in Chembur, Mumbai.
It was the beginning of the lock-down due to the corona virus pandemic I started noticing a pair of Purple-rumped sunbirds. On the 30th of March while sipping a morning cup of tea. Incessant singing from the pair drew my attention, the male courting the female following her everywhere flicking his wings and singing as she quietly seemed to be engaged in scouting the area, she seemed stoic and composed through his excitement. They were moving around a large Ficus macellandii tree.The Ficus is about 15 feet tall and has dense drooping foliage with long leaves, it sits in a pot directly under my window and on the boundary wall of our building abutting the access road. This area is that of high human activity as our building watchman sits there, it is also where every resident will pass by. I decided to take my camera and follow their movements and they allowed me within 15 feet of them though the female was very suspicious of my presence as she looked at me with scorn. I noticed her in some kind of a war with her own reflection in the window of the car that is parked within 5 feet of the tree, I thought she also picked at spider webs while fighting her demons. The male in the meantime hoisted himself on the top of the wiper blade all pomp and shine, singing as loudly as possible. I backed off.
It was within two days I noticed the female starting to tie in the first few sprigs of material to begin a nest. But then immediately after beginning it was abandoned.
Yet this was only the beginning of efforts by the pair. Within a matter of five days they began building on the road side of the same tree anchoring it into its aerial roots. I dared not look. I began following them mostly through their high pitched calls. The male followed the female back to the nesting spot singing aggressively. As these were early days of the Corona epidemic the road was relatively quiet. It was around the eighth day, their workmanship was coming to a close when one evening I noticed tragedy had struck! In the tree across from the nest I noticed a number of crows looking towards where the nest was and cawing excitedly, it was not a good sign. On rushing down I saw the nest had been attacked , it hung in tatters and the pair were calling from the heights of a copper pod tree in the vicinity.
The birds did not give up, I noticed them building again around the 27th of May, this time back to the first site that they had initially abandoned. I kept a watch through recording video from a camera hidden behind my curtain. The nest was developing fast and well, recording showed that they made trips at intervals of 3-7 minutes. I thought this was a better way to observe the construction activity. Then tragedy Struck AGAIN! It was 3rd June 2020, Mumbai had been shivering under the advance of Cyclone Nisarga threatening us with wind speeds of a 100 Kilometers per hour and heavy rainfall, we were thinking of how to protect our houses so that windows don't get shot out, what chance did the sunbirds have. Mumbai escaped, luckily only slightly bruised but the sunbirds had no chance. The nest hung in a wet mess, abandoned again.
I thought the birds having had a third mishap in the season would not be active for a long time. This assessment was not entirely wrong till I noticed them exactly at the same spot as twice before on 21st September beginning on another nest. I followed them through their calls again, completely avoiding direct visual observation of the nest in the initial stages . But kept following them, coming in and going around. It was good progress, in the initial stages of construction the male followed the female on every trip calling loudly and offering himself as distraction, showing off his brilliant plumage as the female worked quickly to use up the material she had got.The trips being made every 3-5 minutes. Human activity near the nest site now was extensive as the car was washed, moved, the watchmen sat around and discussed in their Tea breaks, people passed the site quite often. Nothing seemed to distract the birds from their work. Only if someone got too close for comfort they would not approach the nest directly. As the nest progressed the intervals between trips increased as I think a more specialized material was required, also the nature of workmanship became more complex. It was about the 26th that I noticed the male no longer accompanied the female on every trip but hung around in the vicinity and on the 28th saw both of them on the nest on an occasion.
On the 29th I noted “ Female working on the nest for long duration while the male sat opposite the mouth of the nest.” The pair being much quieter now. On 1st and 2nd October I saw the pair on a Loranthus Parasite growing in an Amaltas Just across the road from the Ficus, preening themselves early in the day. I think the construction was complete. The nest hung about four feet off the ground on the east side of the Ficus, its mouth faced North. It had been a marvelous feat as in the nine days it had taken for the construction to be completed I did not notice a single moment spent on feeding, it had been hectic with the numerous trips bringing in material and sewing in into a cozy structure. They must have been exhausted!
The female was now in the nest and I did get an image of her there on the 3rd of October .
Then there was a hush, I too decided to stay away. It was on the 10th that I observed “ The female sitting in the nest for long durations and even close approach by humans did not seem to deter her.”
The morning of 13th found them very vocal and active again. In my mind I was guessing that now there must be mouths to feed.
Then came the 17th, Hyderabad had been hit by cyclonic storm for the past few days bringing in heavy rain and devastation. It also bought in a lot of thunder, lightning and rain to Mumbai. I would wake up each morning to check how our pair had done through the night. I noticed the female working on the nest intermittently on the dome of the nest before entering it. But she did not seem disturbed.
On the 18th I observed that the pair are doing trips, the female enters the nest periodically while the male sits around, “ He get very excited if you train a lens on him now, trying to shy away. Behavior not seen earlier when he was more than happy to have received the attention. He too is quite busy now.
It was on the 20th while making a round of our plants in the nursery I glanced towards the Ficus, the nest was missing! Oh, no, a quick search revealed it to be lying on the ground, I picked it up and to my dismay stared at a hungry chick inside. It seemed too small for me to have nursed, unfeathered, eyes shut.The nest had broken off and the hood area seemed damaged, like it had been pried apart. We made an attempt at sewing it back onto the branch, but woe betide,the birds never came.
Of late on two occasions at the end of November I have seen the pair at morning tea time scouting the area but no further activity has been noticed. I hope the coming period is brings better luck to their efforts.
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