My observations on the nesting of Tailor bird

I would like to share an interesting incident which had happened in my home a few months back with my birding friends. It was September 13^th 2014. My home normally has quite a lot of human traffic because my office also functions out of my home. In addition, owing to my large family both from my fathers and mothers side, we have no dearth of visitors every day. In front of my home is a Beach Cordia (Chordia Subchordata) [1]tree. That day morning, my mother had observed a peculiar looking leaf. It was looking quite diseased from a distance and my mother asked me to take a closer look.

When I approached the leaf, I could hear a hissing sound like the one made by a snake. For a moment I was alarmed and looked around to see if there was any snake nearby. It took me a moment to realize that the sound was coming from the leaf. When I took a closer look, I found that it was not a diseased leaf but an active nest of a Common Tailor bird! (Orthotomus sutorius) (Tamil: தைலக்குருவி). A dry brown leaf was attached to a healthy green leaf. Two leaves were brought together quite expertly and joined together at their margins with ‘rivets’ with punches made by the bird’s beak. Inside were two tailorbird fledglings sitting smugly in comfortable bed of fibers, feathers, down and spiderwebs.

I was so surprised to find the nest in such a high traffic area. However, the nest wouldn’t have been discovered unless a person was very observant.

I decided to leave the fledglings alone and instructed my family members not to disturb the nest or the area near the nest. It was a moment of great joy to me and my family members to find that the bird had chosen to build a nest right inside my house. While keeping a distant watch of the birds, I tried to look up some facts about the breeding information of the common tailor bird.

It is fairly easy to tell apart the male from the female during the breeding time. The breeding season is March to December peaking from June to August in India, coinciding with the wet season.[2]This matches with my nesting observation in September, which happens to be the rainy season in my area. They generally nest in large leaved plants, once a nest has been observed in a brinjal plant[3]. It is general believed that the female is responsible for making the nest but I did not have the good fortune of witnessing the nest building activity so I cannot confirm this. It is also believed that the male feeds the incubating female. This again is an unconfirmed belief. It is quite surprising that we know so little about the nesting habits of one of our most common garden birds. As I mentioned in a recent article to Coimbatore nature society, it is more important than ever to revisit the nidification (pertaining to the nest) work of Indian birds. Ornithologists and naturalists seem to agree that the Tailor bird lays about 3 eggs. I could only observe two fledglings in the nest. This was a time in which, there was a glut of caterpillars from the tree. (I haven’t yet identified the species of the butterfly) It is of no wonder the bird chose this timing for raising its chicks.

However, to my surprise, I could find no mention in literature about the hissing sound of the fledglings. It was quite remarkably similar to a snakes sound. It was perhaps a defence mechanism to thwart predators from approaching the nest.

Some three days after I had observed the fledglings for the first time, I looked at the tree and could not see the leaf. I went closer to see where the leaf went and I saw that the leaf attached to the tree had withered away and had fallen to the ground along with the chicks still in them. I don’t know for how long the chicks had being lying there crying for help. The tailor bird was also looking at it from some distance away. It was hopping about nervously with helplessness written in its face (If there is such a thing). There was absolutely no way that it could pick up the leaf and take it to a safe location considering the weight of the nest and the fledglings.

Now, from my extensive readings, I had come to an opinion that I should not step in nature’s way. However, I decided to make an exception to the rule for the sake of these hapless chicks and intervene. I picked up the nest along with the nest and with a help of my wife, a plastic chord and some scissors (No prizes for guessing which was more helpfulJ), I hung the stem of the leaf to the branch closest to the location of the original nest. I wanted to see whether the parent bird would still continue to feed its chicks. If one of M Krishnan’s essays, he had mentioned that the tailor bird would abandon its nest if it has been discovered. I wanted to check this theory out. From some distance away, I placed my camera equipped with a 150-300mm zoom lens mounted on a tripod and set it to video record mode. My DSLR camera, for some strange reason, only permits shooting 20 minute videos. I was happy to know that the parents was still making their runs to feed its chicks, but it was doing so at the rate of 5- 6 times in the observation window of 20 minutes (imposed by my camera).

I would have liked to end this essay on a happy note.  It would have been perfect to report that a new generation of tailor birds were seen hopping about in my garden. However, it was not to be. Honestly, I do not know what became of the fledglings. On the morning of September 18^th, I observed that the nest was empty. The nest was intact, but there was no sign of the fledglings. Had they learnt to fly and left it overnight? Were they caught by a predator? I like to wish for the former option. I concede that I can never know the answer to the question. All through the rainy season, I kept hoping to see another nest being built so I could make better notes, but my wait was futile. Well, tomorrow is another day.

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[1] Valke, D. (n.d.). Cordia subcordata - Beach Cordia. Retrieved August 1, 2015, from http://www.flowersofindia.net/catalog/slides/Beach Cordia.html

[2] Common tailorbird. (2014, November 18). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 00:41, August 1, 2015, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Common_tailorbird&oldid=634389278

[3] Baker, E. (1932). The nidification of birds of the Indian empire, (1st ed., Vol. 2, pp. 370-372). London: Taylor and Francis.