For a few weeks now, I’ve been watching a pair of Mudlarks building their nest. In fact, they’ve built two nests. The first one looked good and solid from my vantage point, far away and down at ground level. But a couple of days after they’d finished it, they abandoned it and started a new one higher up in the same tree.

Mudlarks, also called Magpie-larks or Peewees, build neat round nests that are basically bowls made of mud. This video shows a male Mudlark collecting mud and reeds at the water’s edge. When he has a good collection, he flies off towards the nest that he and his mate are constructing. As the bird flies, a couple of Kookaburras start cackling, and one of the Mudlarks gives its distinctive call: “pee-wee pee-wee pee-wee”.

Here’s the male Mudlark on mud collection duty:

The next video shows the first nest under construction. The bird prods and pushes mud into the walls of the nest, then sits flat and wiggles its tail end to shape the nest.

As well as building walls, nest construction also involves sitting on the nest and wiggling back and forth to get the shape right:

The nest was looking good, I thought. But several days later, a decision is made. The birds abandon their first attempt and start a new nest, higher up in the same tree:

They’ve chosen a lovely spot, at the edge of Manly Dam. The next video shows one of the birds building the second nest. The second bird arrives with a beak-ful of mud, and takes over construction. The video then zooms out and in again to show the first nest on a lower branch, then zooms out further to show the dam and some of the neighbours (a Little Black Cormorant and a Great Egret).

Aside from the occasional noisy cockatoo, the neighbours are quiet for the most part — like this Great Egret:

And a few water dragons:

But the park does get quite busy over the weekend. Families hold picnics nearby, and children paddle in canoes. Perhaps the birds moved higher to avoid the weekend disturbance.

Perhaps the first nest didn’t meet quality assurance checks. Or perhaps the two parents-to-be spotted the large, scary intruder in the neighbourhood: a Lace Monitor lizard. I took this video of the lizard prowling around the tree where both nests are. Lace Monitors eat eggs and baby birds, and are very good at climbing trees. The Mudlarks’ second nest is higher in the tree and on thinner branches, which would make it much more difficult for the lizard to reach.

Lace Monitors are the second-largest lizards in Australia. They measure 1.5 to 2 metres long — longer than I am tall, and their hands are as big as mine! Here’s a close-up of the Lace Monitor on the move:

When I got too close with my camera, the lizard crouched down and went into stealth mode:

The Mudlarks are still sitting happily on their new nest. Here’s the male:

And here’s the female:

Good luck to them and their new family!

Common name: Magpie-lark, also called a Peewee or a Mudlark
Scientific name: Grallina cyanoleuca
Approximate length: 30 cm
Date spotted: August to September 2024 (summer)
Location: Manly Dam National Park, New South Wales, Australia