While birding on the road to Galibore, Karnataka,on the banks of the Kaveri, in the Cauvery Wild Life Sanctuary (CWLS), we obseved some abandoned nests of the Baya Weavers.

We found that some Scaly-breasted Munias were now using the nests, and for a while, we watched these little beauties flying into, and away, from the nests.

A little later, though, our attention was arrested by the call of a

RUFOUS TREEPIE

which we found flying from nest to nest.

It kept picking at the dried grass that made up the nests:

I could not understand whether it was foraging for insects in the grasses, or if it was unpicking the grass reeds to use in a nest of its own.

At one point, I found the bird actually putting its head into the opening of one of the nests, as if to try and get in.

Here’s the Treepie on the nest:

I took another one, too:

The

Wiki entry on this bird

does not mention anything about this behaviour. I wonder if I could get some more information about this…was the bird just being opportunistic?

The bird list of this trip. on eBird is at

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S20983466