A great photo story about Grey-crowned Babblers courtesy of Dave Price...

Grey-crowned Babblers (Juwayikirdi in Warlpiri) nest communally. First you find your materials.

They have to be high quality but cheap, from where ever you can find them.

Including from a recently vacated Magpie lark's nest if you can get away with it.

Recycling is the name of the game, or is it looting?

Then you've got to get it all up to the construction site, waiting in line for your mates to finish their bit and get out of the way.

There's always someone who wants to be foreman, or is that site manager, giving orders from down below.

This is actually an annual renovation. This nest is several years old. The tree is next to our drive way and not far from our bedroom window.

They will be our alarm clock for the next several months. Funny they've picked the day Yasi decides to drop in all the way from north Queensland to renovate the nest. They are obviously owner/builders and don't have a union to stop their workers on wet days. There's no BBLF.

I spoke too soon, even for owner/builders the rain just gets to be too much to take sometimes. Yasi is adversely effecting production in our part of the world as well.

Or is this just smoko?

All images and text - Dave Price. Reproduced here by kind permission.