Birds are preparing here for spring season.

Started building their nests, and soon there will be babies around again.

Look at this cute little Cape Wagtail (Motacilla capensis).

We saw another wagtail nest last season in a flowerpot at the Art Cafe Coffee house. Brave little birds, and they did not even fly away when I sat right below them with my camera. I have posted both the nest and the babies last year, and this year it's going to be a bit difficult to find the wagtail nest here, as I think they are building their nest at a property across the road. But in any case, I try my best to find the nest.

The Cape wagtail is a monogamous, territorial solitary nester, and breeding pairs stay together over a number of breeding seasons. Like many territorial birds, the males will fiercely attack their own reflection when seen in mirrors or windows. The nest is built by both sexes and consists of a cup made of a wide range of materials, both natural and artificial, which is lined with hair, rootlets, wool and feathers. The nest is situated in a recess within a steep bank, tree, or bush, or in a man-made location such as a hole in a wall, a pot plant, or a bridge.

Source

Of course, birds have to do things before they nest.

Have a look below at a pair of Laughing Doves (Spilopelia senegalensis) in our front garden. At first, there has to be a bit of romance, like a kiss.

The male in courtship display follows the female with head bobbing displays while cooing. The male pecks its folded wings in "displacement-preening" to solicit copulation from the female. A female accepts by crouching and begging for food. The male may indulge in courtship feeding before mounting and copulating. Pairs may preen each other.[20] Males may also launch into the air with wing clapping above their backs and then glide down in a gentle arc when displaying.

Source

Then its action time.

Suddenly, a jealous Cape Turtle Dove (Streptopelia capicola) appeared, and it tried to interfere in the business of the laughing doves.

But that guy ignored the attacker, and he stayed on the job.

Now we all know what a Pied Crow (Corvus albus) looks like, as I have posted them many times before.

The nest is usually built in tall, isolated trees, though sometimes smaller specimens are used, depending on availability. The cross supports of telephone poles are also frequently used, and both sexes build the nest. A clutch of three to six eggs is laid from September to November (depending on latitude) and are pale green spotted with various shades of brown. The eggs are normally covered when the incubating female leaves the nest. Incubation is 18–19 days and the young are usually fledged by around 45 days. Both sexes rear the young.

Source

It sat at the top of a very high tree, and you can see that they are also building a nest.

And finally, the crow took off and the light was bad.

Just to get back to the Laughing Dove incident. We have two pairs of Cape Turtle Doves that nest here at our place, and they are very territorial, to such an extent that they fight with the smaller laughing doves when they come to eat. We feed the doves early morning and late afternoon, and it is a real battle to keep the doves apart as the turtle doves continue to try to get to the food of the laughing doves.

They have a reason not to like the presence of the laughing doves, as the little ones were not here last season, and they view them as intruders into their space. It happened by chance that a little laughing dove landed on the burglar bars of our study window, and we decided to go outside and feed it. At first it started to come alone, and a few days ago he brought his girlfriend to also come and eat. So now, they eat here every day.
Such is life.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the story.

Photos by Zac Smith. All-Rights-Reserved.

Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.

Thank you kindly for supporting this post.