Heat and Pictorellas

[garymc]

Just this morning I noticed that two pairs of pictorella had just hatched there young.

Given that the average temperature here for the last fortnight is sitting just below 40C, including 4 days of at leat 43C (yesterday was 44.1C) I think that is pretty impressive. Getting the chicks out may be another matter, but just the fact that the eggs remained viable is pretty amazing (I think).

I recall a numberof years ago a similar experience with Piccies, when the temperature one day reaching 47C - the pictorellas, which had nested hard up against the roof, duly hatching the next day.

In the same period I have had numerous nests (mostly eggs but some chicks) of other species "cook".

[Lukec]

This is interesting, what is the standard incubation temp for finch eggs?

[garymc]

I thought 36 degrees was starting to get high, but ....

[desertbirds]

The Pictorellas i had several years ago wouldnt start laying until it was 40 deg. They changed their habits after a few seasons but one pair in particular would breed up against the roof in this weather. I reckon the chicks will be ok, interestingly they didnt do as well nesting when the weather was ok,perhaps thats when other birds were having a go. The eggs and chicks appear to be able to handle extreme heat.