Purple Rumped Sunbird Building Nest and Squirrel destorys

 Purple rumped Sunbird vs Squirrel

Purple-rumped sunbird (Leptocoma zeylonica) is very common bird to Indian subcontinent especially Sothern and eastern parts of India. It is endemic to Indian states Maharashtra, Madya Pradesh, Orissa, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala and some parts of Jharkhand and Uthara Pradesh as well.

Sunbird nest India

Watch the following video of sunbird building the nest very carefully. And when female sunbird is away for bring the nest material, An Indian Palm squirrel attacks the nest for stealing some of nest materials. Yes, Squirrels steal this nest materials and use it for their nest making . 

Sunbird Nest in Guntur Andhrapradesh

Below Image is the same nest shown in above video, you can see clearly nest was built with plants fiber materials, cobwebs , and pp (polypropylene) threads which were used to make rice packaging in India.

Usually female sunbirds only built the nest. So the squirrel is trying to steal the material when ever female sunbird is away. Finally after long fight with sunbird squirrel has not came near to the nest. Hopefully sunbird chicks will stays safe in this nest. 

How birds are making use of Plastic ( Polypropylene )

These nests are usually made of cobwebs, fiber material from plants and lichens. Here the clever sunbird used polypropylene threads also in the nesting material. Polypropylene bags are widely used for packaging of processed food items such as rice, wheat or some flour . Commercially these bags are called as "pp woven sacks" , pp refers to polypropylene.

 

These pp sacks are known for the toughest packaging bags, and because of this they are high in demand in many industries such as sugar, grains, milling, food and also used in the "packers and movers" business for packing the luggage.

Polypropylene , also known as polypropene, is a thermoplastic polymer used in a wide variety of applications. So the human created plastic is also used by birds for making their nest.

Is it really safe to use this polypropylene material ? check out this Link .