Very special scenes of Varied Sittellas – From eggs to fledglings
32BIBY TV is delighted to present these wonderful and rarely captured scenes of one of Australia’s cutest and quirkiest little birds, the Varied Sittella (Daphoenositta chrysoptera). This footage was filmed and produced by Vicki Powys, who exclusively owns all rights to the video. Vicki resides in the stunning Capertee Valley, which is recognised internationally as an Important Bird Area (IBA) and is listed in the top 50 places for birdwatching in the world. What an ideal location for this conservationist, citizen scientist and renowned wildlife sound recordist. We look forward to sharing more of her work with our BIBY TV viewers. For further information on Varied Sittellas and this video, please read Vicki’s description below.
“Sittellas are endearing little birds that forage with rapid jerky movements as they make their way down tree trunks and branches, probing the bark with their thin and sharp, slightly upturned beaks. Plumage varies across Australia and includes at least five races, with the Orange-winged Sittella occurring in SE Australia and as featured in this video. Males of this race have white throats and grey head, while females have grey throats and a darker head, otherwise the sexes are similar in appearance. They are a social species often with helpers at the nest, and they forage in family groups, keeping in contact with a distinctive loud 'seewit' plus constant chittering and 'chip' calls. Their beautifully camouflaged nest is built in the upright fork of a tree, 5-20 metres high.
For this video a nest was observed in Capertee Valley, NSW, from 28 August, 2020 (when a female sittella was already sitting on eggs) to 21 September when three young fledged. The nest was situated in open eucalypt woodland, in a forked, upright branch of an ironbark tree at a height of 10 metres. There were four adults attending the nest, including the breeding female and her partner plus two helpers, possibly earlier offspring. The nest was very sturdy and withstood rain and strong winds. It was covered in small pieces of lichen and blended seamlessly with the branch profile. After the young ones fledged, I followed the family for several days. As the young became more proficient in flying, the group became harder to locate, with their preferred habitat being in the highest treetops of local ironbarks!
This video and observations were made by Vicki Powys in Capertee Valley, NSW, on a 100 acre private bushland property that is protected with a Nature Conservation Trust covenant. A pocket camera was used (Lumix DMC-TZ80, with x 30 optical zoom). Some sequences include audio that was recorded simultaneously using an Olympus LS10 recorder with directional or stereo microphones. Production was made using Quicktime and iMovie on an iMac computer.”