One aspect of nest building implied in yesterday's post needs to be elaborated on a little more. It is probably something most people would not consider, but plays a crucial role in the success of a nest. When I said that the red-bellied had spent the best part of three days building the cavity, I left something unsaid.
Notice how the red is interrupted on the female and reappears
near the bill, unlike the male in the first photo.
One of the keys to the success of humans as opposed to the animal kingdom is the principle of the division of labor. If we decide to build a house, there is an entire complex system behind us helping us to succeed; men who have cut down the trees, shaped the lumber into boards, shipped them off to hardware stores, trucked them to the building site, and on and on. That is not to mention so many other aspects, like a wife making lunch for the builder so that he can spend more time building. All these helpers make the entire task of building a house much less problematic than if the builder had to do all these things himself in order to finish his task.
The red-bellied doesn't have this luxury of a support system. Expending three days of energy building a nest only to have the female reject it has to have been a blow. That was three days he couldn't spend foraging for food keeping his energy up. So, it was a bigger deal than it may have appeared at a cursory glance. After almost a week, it appears he has abandoned his efforts to build a nest in this tree altogether.
No comments:
Post a Comment