Possible Galah nesting attempt
Galahs at nesting hollow
The beautiful Galah is a very common bird around where we live in Murray Bridge, South Australia. Flocks of several hundred are a common sight in the summer months.
Over the last few weeks two Galahs have been investigating a hollow in an old growth mallee tree near our house. This hollow is in clear view from where we often have meals on our new back veranda. The tree is about 30 metres away.
I hesitate to call them a “pair” because I haven’t actually seen them mating. I have strong reasons for calling them as such because one is a male and the other is a female and they are displaying typical nesting behaviour. (The female has a red eye, the male a dark brown eye.)
This pair has been hanging around this hollow for several hours every day now for many weeks. Both often go into the hollow to check it out. I can’t tell if they are actually enlarging it or not. They allow us to get quite close to the tree without flying off.
Then last week while we were having lunch they started breaking small leafy twigs off the tree and taking them into the hollow to line their nest. Seems fairly conclusive to me.
The only downside it that we will have to put up with some very noisy little neighbours later in the year. Baby Galahs can be very demanding and very noisy.
I’ve taken quite a few photos. Below is a selection of the best of them. Click on the photo to enlarge the image.
Galahs at nesting hollow
Galahs at nesting hollow
Galah at nesting hollow
Galahs at nesting hollow
Galahs at nesting hollow
A couple of Galahs if ever I saw them!! lol
Good one Kelvin – but you must admit – they do look beautiful. And nesting so close to the house is a bonus – until the babies start begging to be fed.
We had a sugar glider nesting box -vacant, hanging in one of our gum trees in our backyard, and two galah’s were very interested. Performing alot of dancing together on top of box and revisited it a few days in a row. So we thought they must mnean buisness. We took the box down and renovated it to suit a galah. Unfortunately they sat there and watched us remove it and they have not returned (been 4 days). I am devistateed. Lets hope they come back! We have also had rainbow lorikeets nesting in other nesting boxes and are onto our second hatching. Also tawny frogmouth owls nest in same spot each year, all in view from our back patio!
Hi there Kylie,
Welcome to my blog about birds. I hope your Galahs come back too. Those featured in the above photos have hardly returned since taking the shots, so I don’t know what is happening there.
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I adore Galahs. They are just stunning. When we were in Australia, a gal we met from Melbourne said Galahs are annoying because they imitate car alarms and wake people up in the morning….”But when I was an exchange student in Nebraska and saw my very first squirrel, I thought, OH! What a sweet little fairy creature!” That made me chuckle. Squirrels are just rats with good P.R.!
I guess the grass is always greener……..
Hi Carol,
Thanks for visiting.
We love the flocks of Galahs that visit our garden every day or fly noisily overhead. Sometimes the flocks can number in the hundreds so the display of colour is amazing.