Australia a land of diverse and often extreme habitats with vast expanses of
wetlands dense forests and arid plains it's populated by an
immense array of birdlife
and many species found nowhere else in the world among them some of the most
flamboyant ear-splitting and bizarre birds imaginable
successful breeding is critical to the survival of their species they need to
go to exceptional lengths to find mates and raise their young
giving the next generation the best chance of life this is the story of
breeding season for avian life Australia is a paradise there are more
than 800 species of birds here an over 370 of these are only found in Australia
but birds of a different feather don't always flock together some prefer to
live in the rainforest like the Golden Bough a bird who builds his u-shaped
nest from twigs in the hope of attracting a female
the guar is part of the cockatoo family and can be found in open country across
mainland Australia Shh
like the Kate Baron goose thrive by the seaside and can drink salt water and
many share their environment with humans
but wherever they live these birds have got their work holding their territory
against invaders attracting and winning partners and safeguarding their chicks
Far North Queensland is famed for its beautiful beaches
and one stretch is named the cassowary coast
because it's home to one of the planet's most extraordinary looking birds the
cassowary this is a mature female
coins land becomes steamier and more tropical as you head further north
towards the equator and its lush rainforests are ideal habitat for the
cassowary which thrives on forests fruits like the Australian EMU and
African ostrich she's a rat ID or flightless bird her flat breastbone has
no keel attachment for wing muscles it's thought that ratites evolved around 60
million years ago in the Cretaceous period and she certainly looks
prehistoric she's solitary and usually wary of humans and can be hard to find
in the forest and she's huge over 6 feet tall and weighing more than a hundred
pounds like all female cassowaries she's bigger and heavier than a male as well
as more brightly coloured
in the dark dense foliage of the jungle the shock of electric-blue on her throat
vivid turquoise around her head and eyes and dramatic red wattle all clearly
identify her as a mature breeding female
comparatively little is known about this species there are several theories about
the purpose of a curious crest on her head called a cask although it looks
hard and horned like it's actually leathery and pliable formed by a keratin
shell growing over spongy cranial bones and enclosing a mysterious empty chamber
cassowaries are omnivores and feed on fruit beetles insects snails and even
carrion one theory is that the Cask helps them forage and serves as a helmet
as they dig through dense undergrowth
it may also protect the head from falling fruit be used as a sound
amplifier or even a weapon in disputes
the cusp continues to grow for life and could also advertise a bird status and
age it's like the cassowary herself the Cask remains steeped in mystery this
female has a home range that overlaps and passes through that of several males
who will each have their own territory of almost three square miles it's August
breeding season for this big bird but she's already parted from her mate she
recently paired up with this male and laid his eggs but that's the end of
their time together
female cassowaries don't raise their young
instead they leave it up to the male to incubate the eggs and later on care for
the chicks she can have several partners over a
four month breeding season and she's already on the lookout for another mate
the cassowary isn't the only Australian bird to have parenting arrangements like
this
this is a male brush Turkey he's part of the mega pod family literally meaning
large foot he also lives in the rainforest in Cannes Far North
Queensland brush turkeys are very adaptable and can be found all along the
eastern coast of Australia by September springtime in Australia the brush turkey
is hard at work preparing a nest he'll spend all day every day scratching
around in one spot on the forest floor he may stop for a quick feed on insects
but then it's back to work he piles up leaf litter twigs and earth into a mound
this will play a vital part in his breeding strategy he rakes up the layer
of debris on the forest floor with his strong legs and large feet and adds it
to his little hillock then he turns over the existing pile again and again
breaking it down into a fine compost
he's an average size for a brush turkey around 26 inches long but the mound he's
obsessively working on will end up being a whopping 13 feet wide
and between 3 and 6 feet high
and it's got to be good females roam around selecting multiple
partners and won't meet with him if his mound isn't up to their standards so
allots riding on it's meticulous construction the brush turkey is a
relatively common bird and there are already several females in the vicinity
who have smaller paler wattles they're regularly checking out his progress and
will wait until the mound is complete before deciding whether to mate with him
but right now this brush turkey is only interested in one thing his mound while
he's still working on his masterpiece he doesn't want anyone near it male or
female and sends out a warning to any other brush turkeys in the vicinity stay
away
in the elevated patente plans of northern queensland higher and cooler
than their often sweltering surroundings it's October and breeding time for a
very exotic bird this is the Victoria's rightful bird named after the British
Queen but is known as the do we do lose to the Aboriginal tribes people he's a
bird of paradise a fairly small bird at around 10 inches long he has some
iridescent sheen to his feathers
his breeding season can last up to six months so he's got to keep his strength
up by eating fruits and insects he digs out of the bark of trees snack over it's
time to get back to business attracting a mate he's got a core area
between two to seven acres where he spends most of his time within that
space he selects a conspicuous vantage point like a tree stump as his display
area having a good location to display in is all part of his strategy to get
the females interested so he's territorial over his posing post usually
his stage will be under a gap in the canopy cover so that the sunlight can
stream a spotlight to reveal his glowing feathers to their best advantage and
then he blasts out his mating call it's loud and unmistakable this raspy cry is
just to make sure he gets the attention of any female that might be nearby
before launching into his ps/2 resistance
it's a tramatic full Wingspread display that shows as much of his plumage as
possible erecting his feathers before throwing out his wings is part of the
act and so is opening his beak wide to show the bright yellow interior he keeps
going hoping to pique the interest of a female
and finally he's graced with an audience
unlike the male with his glorious plumage female rifle birds are a dull
brown but after just a few seconds she loses interest and flies off it's
thought the females may base their mating choices on quality of display so
perhaps this male needs to brush up his skills
while his display is impressive this is Australia home of the fantastic
so there's another bird that can win a showing off contest with the rifle bird
hands down
the Lyrebird
lyrebirds live in temperate often wet woodland in the coastal southeast of
Australia this one has made his home in a forest outside Melbourne in the
southern state of Victoria they're clumsy fliers and spend most of their
time on the ground both the males and females are a reddish brown and have
powerful legs with long toes ideal for raking over the leaf litter
and soil looking for food such as cockroaches spiders and worms a male
lion but will also use leaf litter and earth to build a display mount to dance
on he may have over a dozen of these in his territory at first glance he may
seem unremarkable but as mating season approaches during the winter months the
male reveals his amazing talents
28 inch long feathers fan out from his tail which he drapes over his head in a
waterfall formation a male will start getting his display feathers when he's
around three years old and these get quite chilly longer every year until he
hits sexual maturity at around 7 the more mature the male the longer his tail
feathers 12 silvery fluffy feathers look ended by too thick banded feathers
called lie rates and two long slender median feathers make for a show-stopping
performance isn't enough to thrill the ladies his song is one of the most
extraordinary of any creature on the planet the Lyrebird can imitate almost
any sounded hears including other birds and animals
captive birds have even copied man-made sounds like trains camera shutters and
car alarms as this male lives deep in the forest he rarely hears artificial
noises and instead he's woven the calls of the other birds that he has into his
own song in all he's included the calls of 12 other species the purpose of
having such an amazing talent for impersonation is unknown but it's
thought that the more complex a song the male can produce the more attractive
years to females his phenomenal ability comes from a special voice box a bird's
vocal organ is called a serious the lyrebirds is more complex than that of
other songbirds which gives him extraordinary flexibility he sings for
20 minutes at a time for several hours a day until a female is attracted to him
and allows him to mate
after copulation he'll return to displaying to attract the next one
there's a female nearby but she isn't showing signs of being impressed by his
performance and now a rival male has barged into his territory and is
displaying to the same female
both female and male live birds are fiercely territorial with an average
territory of three to six acres
the competition is on
the resident male tries to chase the interloper out but he doesn't succeed in
pushing him far away and they end up displaying within a few feet of each
other it turns into a real talent show
finally the resident bird manages to chase the invader out of his territory
but the female has seen and heard enough today
she's not interested in either of them she puts on a show of her own with no
mimicry just her own beautiful song
meanwhile in the forest near Cannes the brush Turkey has managed to breed and
now has a clutch of up to 24 eggs buried in the depths of his mound his little
hillock is now almost three feet high but he's still hard at work he's the
sole custodian of these eggs because the females move around from partner to
partner it's impossible for him to know whether the eggs in his mound were
actually fertilized by him or another turkey regardless of their paternity
he'll tend the mound for the seven weeks it takes to incubate the eggs but he'd
caused by the composting action of the plant material will keep the eggs warm
heat sensors in his beak enable him to determine the temperature of the mound
and he'll regulate it by adding or removing material he's aiming for a
temperature of between 91 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit at 93 degrees there will be
an equal division between male and female chicks
if cooler there will be more male chicks if warmer more female chicks help guard
the eggs until it's almost time for them to hatch and then it's all up to the
chicks they must dig their way out of the mound and fend for themselves
immediately
brush turkey eggs and chicks are a favorite food for carnivorous lizards
snakes and wild dogs and it's not just animal predators who pose a threat to
the brush turkeys successful breeding
rural Gardens frequently back onto brush turkey habitat and the turkeys practice
of making enormous breeding mounds in people's backyards can lead to these
precious piles of compost being destroyed a single egg only has a 1 in
200 chance of making it to adulthood so the brush turkeys eggs have still got a
long way to go
just as the female brush turkeys don't have any involvement in incubating or
rearing their young neither do the much larger cassowaries
and back on the cassowary coast the female is far away from the eggs she
laid this year
with parenting being the responsibility of the male she's free to spend her time
foraging these giant birds are generally very shy but this female lives close to
a beach frequented by humans which is far from idea but there are some good
feeding opportunities here these Beach almonds provide a useful source of
protein along with the insects she eats in the jungle
next to the beach is a campsite and she's not afraid to make use of the
amenities here
cassowaries need to drink frequently
her legs have their ankle joint equivalent to where humans have their
knees so she can bend easily to reach the water
she has clearly become use to the humans here but this isn't a good thing
beachgoers are warned not to feed the cassowaries it can be dangerous for such
a large animal to associate people with food
becoming accustomed to humans can make the massive birds more aggressive
not only is she one of the heaviest birds in the world
she's equipped with a razor-sharp 5-inch dagger on her dinosaur like in a toe
which she can use to vicious effect
a high proportion of documented attacks have been perpetrated by birds who've
been fed by people
which may be what's worrying these picnickers
whenever cassowaries come out of the jungle in search of human food the
greater the risk to their survival
they're more likely to cross roads and be hit by cars the rate at which they're
the victims of road accidents is of grave concern to conservationists
cassowaries are classified as an endangered species
luckily she gets back to the jungle safely to look for the more typical
items in her diet insects and crucially fruit
cassowaries are called a keystone species because of their ecological
importance they're able to swallow fruits almost whole and have what is
known as a gentle digestive system meaning that the fruits are excreted
with the seeds still intact and flesh still on them fruits stay in
the gut for less than four hours but in that time the cassowary could move to a
completely different area distributing the fruit species more widely so the
survival of the cassowary is vital to the continuation of many other species
in the mild climate of the woods around Melbourne the male Laird is still going
strong with his spectacular display
he'll spend four hours a day singing for another six weeks until the end of the
breeding season mating with as many females as you can these birds have a
division of labour that's found more frequently in the animal kingdom
unlike the cassowary it's the female of this species that will tend the egg and
rear just one chick although he's busy trying to attract more partners he's
already had some success he's made it with this female who now has a very big
job to do
she's in charge of building the nest
first on the list gather some nesting material
she collects some moss leaf litter pieces of fern and twigs until she's got
enough to create a cozy nest
she even uses the male's feathers to line it
it's a matter of personal preference as to where she cites her list some females
make their nests close to the ground
whilst others choose sites high up in the trees 10 to 14 days after mating the
female lays her egg she just lays one a year unless the egg or chick dies if
this happens and it's early enough in the season the female can mate again and
lay another egg six weeks later up in a cozy but dark little nest in the tree
her chick hatches now it's mums job to keep her hungry hatchlings supplied with
food until it can leave the nest she must feed her chick every 20 minutes
she spends large parts of the day gathering up grubs and small insects
which she carries in her throat ready to feed to her young when she returns to
the nest because of the rigorous feeding schedule she will even venture out at
night looking for food a time when she's most at risk from predators like foxes
and cats
four weeks later the Lyrebird chick is fat fluffy and healthy with his nest
being so high up in a tree his wings need time to develop so he can fly
safely out when he Fletch's he'll spend ten weeks in the nest before leaving
chicks in nests closer to the ground don't need to wait for their wings to
develop as much and we'll leave at around six weeks to go and live
independently while the female is tending to her hatch Lee's every need
the male is still putting on a performance but with a different purpose
the males molt their tail feathers at the end of every breeding season so he
won't have his prized plumage for very much longer at this time of year these
displays are all about defending his territory rather than attracting a mate
even when his tail feathers are gone he was still live in the same territory he
wants to keep exclusive rights to this area for the next breeding season he'll
attack anyone who dares to transgress his borders
the other male in the tree has come uncomfortably close to his patch he may
be challenging the resident male to see if he can take over his territory the
resident male responds by making his display even more robust but it doesn't
put off the intruder who gets even closer
as things get more heated they move further and end up down by the nearby
creek the resident male asserts his dominance by crowding and charging the
trespasser pushing him towards the edge of his territory
finally he gets the riedel on the run
for now his territory remains intact
while the Lyrebird is singing and dancing the male cassowary has childcare
duties to attend to
because in stark contrast to the lyrebirds arrangements it's the male
cassowaries who make the nest incubate the eggs and look after the chicks
his four chicks are already around eleven weeks old
he'll stay with them for another six months teaching them to look for food
and water
they're striped for camouflage but by six months they'll lose their stripes
and become a uniform mousey Brown
they won't begin to get their distinctive vivid coloring until they're
around a year to 18 months old then the chicks will leave their dad's territory
to establish their own
the male lives in a forest that adjoins a house and sometimes crosses the garden
here bringing his chicks with him while three of them are robust one of them
seems to be weaker than the others this little chick struggles to keep up she
may be sick infant mortality and cassowaries is very high predation
diseases habitat destruction and road accidents all claim young cassowary
lives out of these four chicks it's likely that only one will survive to
adulthood for now beg dad takes care of their every need
it can be rainy and humid in this tropical part of the country but today
it's extremely hot 86 degrees Fahrenheit dad's brought his brood out here for the
good foraging but now he needs to get them out of the Sun
when he decides to move on the sickly little chick falls behind a game
she may not make it to adulthood but her father's attempted care would at least
ensure she has the best chance of survival
the family crosses the road back into the forest
as they depart the female cassowary appears from the forest she may be the
chicks mother but she's free of parental obligation
she helps herself to a drink even though there's a chance she may run into her
ex-partner and chicks she won't take any interest in their welfare
from the tropical north to the temperate South Australia's birds are some of the
world's most singular and exotic at every stage of the breeding season
they're hard at work the strenuous job of attracting a mate defending a
territory
building a nest and tending to vulnerable chicks
are all for the danger and difficulty these vibrant talented and eccentric
Birds
they will adopt their own breeding tactics to get the next generation
safely on its way
you
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