The Making of Tailorbird's Nest [HD]

                    

                                          

The Common Tailorbird (Orthotomus sutorius)

The Common Tailorbird (Orthotomus sutorius) is a songbird found across tropical Asia. The Common Tailorbird, Orthotomus sutorius, is a small warbler whose range extends from India to southern China and down into Indonesia. It is common, mostly in the lowlands, but can range as high as 5000ft. It is found in most habitats with thick cover and can often be found in urban parks and gardens. It’s song was nicely summed up by Rudyard Kipling in Rikki-tikki-tavi, where the tailorbird Darzee continually and irritatingly chirps on without thought given to the content of the piece. Like most warblers, the Common Tailorbird is insectivorous. The song is a loud cheeup-cheeup-cheeup with variations across the populations. The disyllabic calls are repeated often. Popular for its nest made of leaves "sewn" together and immortalized by Rudyard Kipling in his Jungle Book, it is a common resident in urban gardens. Although shy birds that are usually hidden within vegetation, their loud calls are familiar and give away their presence. They are distinctive in having a long upright tail, greenish upper body plumage and rust coloured forehead and crown. This passerine bird is typically found in open farmland, scrub, forest edges and gardens. Tailorbirds get their name from the way their nest is constructed. The edges of a large leaf are pierced and sewn together with plant fibre or spider silk to make a cradle in which the actual nest is built. The tailorbird uses spider’s silk, grass or tiny twigs as threads, tacking material or even rivets.

The Common Tailorbird is a brightly coloured bird, with bright green upperparts and whitish underparts. They range in size from 10 to 14 centimetres (3.9 to 5.5 in) and weigh 6 to 10 grams (0.21 to 0.35 oz). They have short rounded wings, a long tail, strong legs and a sharp bill with curved tip to the upper mandible. They are wren-like with a long upright tail that is often moved around. The crown is rufous and the upperparts are predominantly olive green. The underside is creamy white. The sexes are identical, except that the male has long central tail feathers in the breeding season, although the reliability of sexing data accompanying museum specimens used in determining this sexual dimorphism has been questioned.Young birds are duller.When calling, the dark patches on the sides of the neck become visible.These are due to the dark pigmented and bare skin that are present in both sexes and sometimes give the appearance of a dark gorget.

The breeding season is March to December peaking from June to August in India, coinciding with the wet season. Although the name is derived from their nest construction habit, the nest is not unique . The nest is a deep cup, lined with soft materials and placed in thick foliage and the leaves holding the nest have the upper surfaces outwards making it difficult to spot. The punctures made on the edge of the leaves are minute and do not cause browning of the leaves, further aiding camouflage.

The bird made knots, however no knots are used. Wood classified the processes used by the tailorbird in nest as sewing, rivetting, lacing and matting. In some cases the nest is made from a single large leaf, the margins of which are rivetted together. Sometimes the fibres from one rivet are extended into an adjoining puncture and appearing more like sewing. The stitch is made by piercing two leaves and drawing fibre through them. The fibres fluff out on the outside and in effect they are more like rivets. There are many variations in the nest and some may altogether lack the cradle of leaves. It is  noted that the birds did not utilize cotton that was made available while  that  was able to induce them to use artificially supplied cotton. The usual clutch is three eggs.

The incubation period is about 12 days. Both male and female feed the young. Mortality of eggs and chicks is high due to predation by rodents, cats, crow-pheasants, lizards and other predators. The young birds fledge in about 14 days. The female alone incubates according to some sources, while others suggest that both sexes incubate; however, both parents take part in feeding and sanitation. The males are said to feed the incubating female. An unusual case of a pair of tailorbirds adopting chicks in an artificially translocated nest belonging to a different pair has been recorded. Nests are sometimes parasitized  by the Cuckoo .  
  

 ● N.B. : It was a three days continuous holiday and I noticed the wonderful thing was going to happen so  shooting was started from 13-04-2012 to 15-04-2014 on a lemon tree ( using its three leaves and  two branches) nearby our home with whole-hearted effort from myself . Enjoyed very much during these days to notice the whole development of the making procedure of the nest & tried to capture those interesting moments as much and as LIVE  as possible. After editing and mixing the video clips as per the days and according to  the sequences of stages  of development ,  Now it is placed before you. I expect that you will enjoy the whole video as it is not  so easy or so common  for everyone to watch such a wondrful natural phenomena . Thanks.

 ● N.B. : This is newly edited on 21/11/2014 and uploaded, then published on 22/11/2014 on YouTube. Previous version of this video which was published on 16/11/2014 on YouTube is deleted due to some sound problem; sound and picture quality up gradation.  

 To enjoy the HD Video click the following YouTube link --► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1opDwmBqXg                                

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