Why Cemara Fake Nests Are Not Attractive In Malaysia !!!

The result so far, using those fake nests made of Casuarina (pine) tree leaves, have not been encouraging.

I might have some explanations to put forward however I will continue using them until I am totally convinced that they are not giving any positive results to my effort.

You see I love to try new things that can help those new BH to be populated as fast as it can be. If they work well I will promote them as an essential tool.  However if they don't work I would like to know why?

One day during my dinner time with a newbie in Dungun he posted to me about the use of this special fake nest made of casuarina tree leaves.

My answer to him why not?

So there goes a new idea over a dinner table get moving.

We started by ordering about 200 pieces each and continue to communicate about our experiences when using them.

After more than six months we have experienced the same results.  Not one being occupied by those swiftlet.

What be the possible reasons for this failure?

I have the following theories:

1) The smell of these fake nests are a bit too heavy.  They are like those pine leaves rotting.  This might be the main reason why they do not attract our local species.

2) Most of our birds over here are from nearby BH and there are non from those foster parents.  In Indonesia cross fostering, where serinti birds were used to breed swiftlet birds by changing of eggs, are very common.  These young fostered swiftlet are used to serinti nests smell.  Do you know what materials do serinti birds used to construct their nests? The answer is pine tree leaves.

3) The used of casuarina fake nest inside a BH with humidifier seems to be a bad combination.  The wet mist tend to easily wet the fake nests and once wet those fungus will quickly grow on them.  These fungus might be another reason why those birds are avoiding these fake nests. Maybe we need to spray with those fungus spray first before installation.

I would conclude that the fake nests is not very attractive to those birds in Malaysia but okay in Indonesia or any country where there are a lot of crossed fostering activities.

If you wanted to try please go ahead but try to see if my above discoveries are true.

I will continue testing and if there are any positive result I will report on this blog.

Remember I have no intention of discouraging all you guy to try using the fake nests but you need to know the reason why it is not attracting any birds so far.

They tend to grow lots of fungus.