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Mudlarks building nest of mud
A few weeks ago, I watched a pair of Mudlarks building their nest. Mudlarks get their name from their construction of nests made of mud and reeds. Despite their name, Mudlarks are not larks. Another name for them is Magpie-larks — but they’re not Magpies either! Yet another name for them is Peewees, which is an imitation of the noise they make: pee-wee, pee-wee.
Building a good nest takes a lot of patience and skill. The birds use their beaks to pile globules of mud on top of each other to form a bowl, increasing the circumference of the bowl with each layer. Every now and then, the birds sit in the growing nest and wiggle their bodies around to smooth out the inside and make sure the nest is the right size and shape. Watch this video to see the nest-building:
The birds collect mud and reeds from a nearby river or lake. Here’s a pair of them (male and female) collecting reeds at Manly Dam in NSW, Australia:
Here’s the female sitting in the nest, making sure it’s the right size and shape:
Here’s a still shot of the male gathering mud and reeds:
Common name: Magpie-lark, also called a Peewee or a Mudlark
Scientific name: Grallina cyanoleuca
Approximate length: 30 cm
Date spotted: 18 September 2025 (spring)
Location: Manly Dam National Park, New South Wales, Australia
Did the big scary lizard make the Mudlarks abandon their nest?
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
Incoming!
I took this photo so that I could identify the black and white birds on a far off skeleton tree. I only saw the incoming missile when I examined the photos at home:
I think the missile is probably a Noisy Miner. The two birds on the tree are Magpie-larks. I’ve often seen Noisy Miners sitting on this strategically-placed dead tree branch, which has a good view over Manly Dam. I’ve seen several types of birds perched there, but the Magpie-larks are usually closer to the water rather than high in a tree.
Date spotted: 30 May 2024
Magpie-lark nest with chicks
A couple of days ago, I spotted a Magpie-lark having a quick cicada snack. Today, back in the same area of Manly Dam, there was more activity in the Magpie-lark community. It turns out that the birds have a nest nearby, and the adults are busily feeding the chicks.
In this video, the chicks’ heads pop up when the adult arrives to feed them. When the adult leaves, the babies stretch the necks, begging for more.
As you can tell, the nest was quite far away from my vantage point, and my camera’s zooming powers are stretched to the utmost. Still, you can see what’s happening.
Here’s a still shot of the nest with an adult Magpie-lark peering down into it. The adult is a female, as it has a white throat. You can see the white underbelly of the bird towards the left, the black wings above, and then, on the right of the branch, the black-and-white head with the bird’s eye just above the rim of the nest:
Gathering food and feeding babies is hard work. The adults often take a breather within sight of the nest, but out of sight of the babies, so that the babies don’t squawk for food. Here’s a male adult (black throat) at top right of the photo, with the nest near the bottom left:
Here’s a closeup of the adult taking a breather:
Common name: Magpie-lark, also called a Peewee or a Mudlark
Scientific name: Grallina cyanoleuca
Approximate length: 30 cm
Date spotted: 7 January 2024 (summer)
Location: Manly Dam National Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’35.5″S 151°14’50.3″E
Magpie-lark eating a cicada
Magpie-larks are quite striking to look at, with their clear black-and-white markings and their strangely light-coloured eyes. This one caught my attention because it had captured a large insect and was making a good meal of it. The insect is an interesting yellowish pink colour. I think it’s a cicada, most likely the yellow variation of a Green Grocer cicada:
The name Magpie-lark is rather confusing. This bird isn’t a magpie or a lark. I guess the “magpie” part of the name comes from the black and white colouring. I don’t know where the “lark” part comes from.
Evidently Magpie-larks, like their namesake magpies, do swoop at humans to protect their territory. Luckily that hasn’t happened to me yet.
This bird is a male. It has a black throat, whereas the female has a white throat.
Common name: Magpie-lark, also called a Peewee or a Mudlark
Scientific name: Grallina cyanoleuca
Approximate length: 30 cm
Date spotted: 5 January 2024 (summer)
Location: Manly Dam National Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’35.5″S 151°14’50.3″E
Magpie-lark eating a cicada
This Magpie-lark, also known as a Mudlark or a Peewee, has caught a cicada for breakfast.
Cicadas are large beetles that appear around Sydney in summer and drive us all crazy with their singing. You can hear the harsh, ringing sound of the cicadas in the video.
There are a few different types of cicadas, many of them quite lovely. Take a look at these posts to see some that I’ve photographed on other occasions.
Back to the bird! This Magpie-lark is a male. You can tell by the colour of its throat, which is black. Female birds have a white throat.
Common name: Magpie-lark, also called a Peewee or a Mudlark
Scientific name: Grallina cyanoleuca
Approximate length: 30 cm
Date spotted: 28 November 2020 (spring)
Location: Manly Dam National Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’35.5″S 151°14’50.3″E
Magpie-lark, Mudlark, or Peewee
This Magpie-lark was one of three that came up close to investigate a friend and me while we were standing on the shore of Manly Dam. Magpie-larks are also known as Mudlarks, because they build their nests of mud, and as Peewees in imitation of the noise they make.
This one is a male. You can tell by the colour of the throat: in males it’s black, in females white.
Common name: Magpie-lark, also called a Peewee or a Mudlark
Scientific name: Grallina cyanoleuca
Approximate length: 30 cm
Date spotted: 28 April 2018 (Autumn)
Location: Manly Dam National Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’35.5″S 151°14’50.3″E
Magpie-lark or Peewee
We don’t seem to quite know what to call these birds. Their most common name is Magpie-lark, but they’re neither magpies nor larks. They are sometimes called Peewees in imitation of their call, “pee wee, pee wee”. Other people call them Mudlarks, because they use mud to build their nests.
Magpie-lark usually look quite dapper, their feathers sleek and smooth. This one is a little ruffled, perhaps blown about by the strong wind.
Common name: Magpie-lark
Scientific name: Grallina cyanoleuca
Approximate length: 30 cm
Date spotted: Sunday 30 October 2016
Season: Spring
Location: Manly Dam Reserve, New South Wales, Australia
Latitude/longitude: 33°46’35.5″S 151°14’50.3″E
Sydney Birder 