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Roopak Gangadharan
11-12-2013, 09:18 PM
At first I thought this female Golden fronted leaf bird was going after the spider, spiders are high on the menu of leaf birds.

Roopak Gangadharan
11-12-2013, 09:21 PM
But it didn’t touch it, instead it kept flying into the web with its beak open, came back keeping the beak still open and rubbed it against the stem and then the wings, it took me a moment to realise it was collecting the spider web as nesting material.

Roopak Gangadharan
11-12-2013, 09:24 PM
It was joining the multiple strands glued to the open beak and wings, after flying into the web, togather to form a thicker strand or mass to carry it to the nest.

Roopak Gangadharan
11-12-2013, 09:27 PM
It is common knowledge that birds use spider webs for reinforcing and as cementing materials in building nests but it is not often that one gets to see how they collect it.

Roopak Gangadharan
11-12-2013, 09:32 PM
This bird made 3 trips in total was moving without a seconds rest and i completely failed to get proper focus.

Rgds
Roopak

Mrudul Godbole
11-12-2013, 11:51 PM
Quite lucky that you could capture this behavior. Liked the way it was trying to get the web in the beak. Nicely documented. Thanks for sharing.

Abhishek Jamalabad
12-12-2013, 06:04 AM
This is so interesting. Very nice observations.
Most birdwatchers today have a habit of rushing through an area making a bird count to get the longest possible list. Instead, it pays off to wait at one spot patiently and get to witness this kind of behaviour. Even if relatively few species are sighted in this way, the observations teach one so much.

Sabyasachi Patra
13-12-2013, 10:51 AM
Superb. I am so happy to see this fine piece of natural history. In their eagerness to reel off number of sightings, people fail to observe behaviour. No problem even if you coudln't get focus on some shots. It helps us in visualising the situation.

Murugan Anantharaman
13-12-2013, 04:03 PM
Lovely behaviour captured. The posts above reminds me of the movie 'The Big Year' where birders just do not observe at all. Very nice that you recorded this entire episode. Thanks for sharing.

Saktipada Panigrahi
13-12-2013, 11:39 PM
Splendid. That the web is so clearly visible in the entire serial speaks a lot about the nature study as well as picture quality.Thanks for sharing.SaktiWild

Bibhav Behera
20-12-2013, 10:24 PM
Amazing sequence captured here Roopak. Great to see this! Thanks for sharing.