Male White-rumped Shama by Alex Vargas

A few days ago I received this interesting message from Bob Harwood. 

“A couple of months back one of the employees at Khao Soi Dao Wildlife Sanctuary pointed to a White-rumped Sharma hanging around the office, and told me it had a nest in the glove box of the rubbish truck there. The truck was in use at the time, a few hundred metres away, and I went and looked at the nest, which had some eggs in it (2 or 3, I think). The truck is parked in front of the office when not being used, and the windows are down (I think they are broken). It appears the bird wasn’t bothered about it’s nest travelling all over the place each day! I never got an opportunity to check what happened after that, but thought I’d ask you if that is unusual or not.“

Whilst I am unable to confirm whether this is unusual or not, I suspect that it is not as I have heard many similar tales of nesting by Robins and Blackbirds in UK in vehicle engines and other ridiculous places; considering these species are related to Shamas it would suggest that this behaviour is a characteristic of birds in this group of species.

It certainly creates an amusing picture in my imagination of the female Shama riding around in the nest all day as the truck is in use.

birds, birding, thailand, nature, national parks