Common tailorbird is a beautiful little bird that can be found in green pastures around us, in and around gardens and parks.
Jyotsna Gupta and her daughter Stuti Rajvanshi who reside in Lovely Home Apartments in sector 5 would have never ever thought that their kitchen garden would become a home for tailor bird. About a month ago, they witnessed a small bird coming and going frequently to a particular flower pot which had a plant with wide leaves. Stuti approached the plant and listened chirping of chicks. When she went closer to that flower pot, she was amazed to see an engineered nest and four chicks. She informed her mother about it and they became concerned for those chicks and the nest. Stuti took some photographs and videos and shared it to CitySpidey. She said, “This was life time moment for me as I never thought that my small flower pot will some day become a home for the brids. I am happy and satisfied that because of my small flower pot four tailor birds have been added to ecology.”
Now the nest in Stuti's small flower pot is empty as the chicks have grown up and flew away. Still Stuti has an emotional attachment with that nest. “I will preserve this nest and wait for another season for them. I don’t know much about them yet I am hopeful that they will return,” said Stuti.
Talking about this, ecologist BNHS(Bombay Natural History Society), Sohail Madan, said, “Tailor bird is a common urban bird, so named because of its habit of sewing together two large leaves using plant material and spider web. With green areas under sharp decline, such nests will become more common in terrace gardens.”
Sohail further said, "Nesting and breeding is quite common in Delhi and urban colonies. For protection of nests its best to keep cats and other predators away. And for their population growth, use of pesticides should be banned as young ones are fed insects and caterpillars whose population depends upon poison free environment."
Common tailorbird is a beautiful little bird that can be found in green pastures around us, in and around gardens and parks. They are prime example of the extraordinary skills that nature has gifted to all its creatures. Female bird uses their bill as a needle to stitch leaves into a pouch to form the basis of the nest. It often steals fibers from house doormats, which it then uses to stitch up its nest pouch. Once the pouch is complete, the male bird helps construct the nest from grasses and line it with cotton, feathers and animal hairs. A birdwatcher and photographer who has spent a long time in the field, Maneet Pal Singh said, “It is a great treat to observe these little birds trusting us humans at times and making nest at such a close proximity to us. Their entire nest-work is so amusing and hard to imagine their craftsmanship. Sometimes we cannot even imagine that any bird would choose to make a nest and breed so close to us.”
Maneet further said,“It is indeed very interesting and amusing that a bird can build a nest at places near regular human activity, but it is not very uncommon as well. These birds try to make nest in such a way that it is well hidden and camouflaged. Unless one observes it carefully or have seen the parent bird fly in frequently to the nest, it may remain hidden mostly to our eyes. Tailorbird or sunbirds, would generally risk making a nest near human activity only if they are used to the normal course of activities in the chosen spot and have fair sense of threats at that place. We may think that making a nest in the balcony or in a pot of plant would make them vulnerable however it does provide protection from their usual predators like reptiles and other bigger birds.”
