Homeless Willy Wagtails

A short time ago, one of my friends from church was telling me she had found what she thought was a paper wasp nest on the porch near her back door.  At the same time she was being swooped by a pair of willy wagtails and she couldn’t understand why.  The next time I was talking to her, she was very excited because she had found what she thought was a paper wasp nest contained four tiny birds, and they belonged to the willy wagtails, which explained their protectiveness.  She then told me she wasn’t getting any work done, because she was watching them all the time!  I told her they would grow pretty quickly, and they wouldn’t be there for that long, so she could get on with her work later….

However, only a few days after, she turned up at my front door quite distressed, because the nest had tipped over, and two of the babies had been dumped unceremoniously on the ground.  She wanted to know what to do, and after a bit of discussion we decided I should go to her place and check it all out, and work out a plan of attack with her.  When we arrived, we were bombarded on all sides by the parent birds, who were absolutely distraught.  I could see the nest, sitting on a stay under the porch roof, but at a crazy angle.  Two of the babies seemed wedged inside, but one had fallen onto a bag of potting mix, and the other was just a little bundle of pinfeathers on the ground.  We had a look at the nest and decided there wasn’t going to be a lot we could do to reinforce it.  We found a hanging basket, and placed it near where the nest was.  We were able to unhook the nest from where the birds had fastened it, and place it in the basket.  Then I took my scarf off, and picked up the two fallen birds and placed them in the basket as well.  I used the scarf so I wouldn’t be transferring too much human smell to them.  One little bird seemed fine, and sat on the edge of the nest as though it was all in a day’s work, but the other little fellow was very wobbly, and I told my friend I wouldn’t be at all surprised if his mother didn’t reject him.  They concentrate their efforts on the fittest, after all.

Having put them in their new home, we retired, and hoped the parents would accept this new arrangement, and I knew they certainly wouldn’t if we hung around.  So I came home, and an hour or two later, I got a phone call telling me mother had inspected the nest, and after a bit of carrying on, settled everyone down, and was back on the nest with them all under her wings.

I was fascinated with the little nest.  It was made from dried grass and leaves, then covered all over on the outside with spiders webs, and lined inside with feathers and animal fur and hair.  I did a bit of research and discovered it’s quite normal for them to have four babies, and they will have two or three broods in a season….they’re industrious breeders!  The willy wagtails themselves are only small, but very dapper.  They’re black and white, and look as though they’re wearing evening dress.  They have conspicuous white eyebrows, which can be expanded.  The males, instead of actually fighting over territory etc, expand their eyebrows at each other until one gives in and shrinks his to practically nothing, this indicating submission.  They eat insects, which they catch on the wing, and when they land on the ground, on a post, wherever, they “wag” their tails, hence their name.  They have a lovely song:  they whistle “sweet pretty creature”.  However, the males are likely to find a bush near your window, and whistle to each other in the middle of the night, so at times like that most people would consider them a pest, not a sweet pretty creature….

A few days after that, I called on my friend, camera in hand, to see how she was, and to take photos of the birds.  “They’ve gone!”  said she, “but they’ve left one….I think the weak one.  What should we do?  Will the parents return?”  I have no experience with willy wagtails, but plenty with magpies, and I thought there wouldn’t be a lot of difference in the parents’ behaviour.  I told her I thought it was unlikely the parents would return, and I also told her I didn’t think it likely this little bird would survive, because he wasn’t strong enough to keep up with the others.  We discussed our options, and I came home with the nest, the hanging basket, and the remaining baby.

I found a cage to put him and the nest in….I thought Max would find him too much of a temptation left unprotected, and prepared some food for him (the bird, not Max…).  He ate, but being so tiny it didn’t take much to fill him up.  Then he got out of his nest, and sat on the perch in the cage.  I had to feed him roughly every half hour to an hour, and that afternoon, and the next morning, he seemed to hold his own.  I wouldn’t say he was going great guns, but he seemed comfortable, and was coping.  However the next afternoon, he “faded”.  He didn’t want food, he just wanted to sleep.  I put him back in his nest, and waited.  He didn’t wake up;  it was a peaceful passing for him.

Mean time, back at my friend’s house, the remaining willy wagtails junior are attending to their flying lessons, and though still dependent on their parents for food, will soon be catching food on the wing with the best of them.

And my friend is now able to get on with her work….