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www.mdavid.com.au |
Brush TurkeysYou've just got to admire Brush Turkeys. They're big birds. They conveniently hang around on ground level where they're easier to see, and they make an amazing nest. |
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The BrushTurkey (Alectura lathami) is a ground-dwelling bird common in some rainforests along the north east of Australia |
I'll never forget my first visit to Noosa. As soon as I got there I headed for the national park and within minutes was happy to discover a wild Brush Turkey in the rainforest. I felt proud of nature-finding skills. Then I went down to busy Hastings Street with its shops and tourists and got a better idea about how clever I'd really been. It turned out that Brush Turkeys were everywhere, wandering the street, strolling down the footpath and even pausing by cafes. In fact the birds were so common that some of the locals were tired of them wrecking their gardens. The truth is that these birds are more common in the steamy northern rainforests than the cooler, drier areas down south. But the sheer number of the birds there still surprised me. Brush Turkeys are ground-dwelling birds although they can fly if they need to. In the bush you'll see them scratching around the damp ground looking for insects, fruit and seeds. |
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The flattened tail is one of the things about Brush Turkeys that makes them easy to recognise |
An unsual white (albino?) Brush Turkey |
What's the big deal about the nests then?These birds make huge nests. The male flicks loose leaves (or it might be someone's carefully-planted vegetable garden) from the ground with his feet, building the stuff up into an impressive large mound. By the time he's finished he has a pile of leaf material about a metre high and 4 metres across. Just like in a compost heap, the leaf material starts to decompose and the fermentation creates heat which - you guessed it - incubates the eggs. The bird makes sure things don't get too hot though - he wants the eggs incubated, not hard-boiled. To test the temperature of the mound he digs a hole and sticks his head in it, like the bird in the photo, below right. If it's too hot he digs up bits of the mound and releases excess heat to ensure a nice egg-friendly temperature. |
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This Brush Turkey is dwarfed by the huge size of its nest |
The male will stick his head into the nest to test its temperature |
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Brush Turkey chick |
About 50 days later, the chicks start hatching and fight their way to the surface. They scamper off into the bush and look after themselves, living alone. |
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