Our New Neighbor

One of the delights about living here in Makeni is the variety of birds. This morning while I washed dishes I saw a bird with bright yellow plumage land on the lawn to gather grass. Breathtaking! My eyes followed it as it traveled to a tree in our neighbor’s yard. With the binoculars Tracy spied the nest he was building next door. How do I know it’s a male? It's a male because the nest he was building was a weaver bird’s nest, a very distinctive nest. They build highly complex woven nests suspended from tree branches. And, males are the ones that build the nest in order to attract the females. The entrance to the weaver bird’s nests are either on the side or underneath, depending on what type of weaver bird he is. This one happened to have its opening on the underside. If a male builds the nest in a shoddy fashion I understand that the female will shun the nest and he has to start all over again. There’s an incentive for getting it right the first time! I’ve always wanted to have a weaver bird’s nest and now I do—right in my neighbor's backyard!