With Wirebirds, the main focus is to preserve their feeding and breeding habitats so the declining trend in their population can be reversed.  Gavin Ellick, more widely known by his nickname, ‘Eddie Duff’, is the Trust’s Conservation Officer.  He is employed to monitor the Wirebirds and collect data which can be used to analyse breeding patterns and success rates.
While doing this work Eddie enjoys observing the birds behaviour and during the time he has been monitoring the Wirebird he has collected a mass of information on the habits and behaviours of Wirebirds.  Below are just some of the descriptions and explanations he has passed on to us.

• The breeding season was thought to be from October to March.  While more breeding activity may take place between those months, Wirebirds are now known breed at any time of year.
• If a predator destroys eggs or chicks, Wirebirds will breed again almost immediately to try to make up the loss.
• Nests are just a scrape in the soil or an indentation in a rock.  Grass or roots are used as camouflage.
• Wirebirds are very territorial, the extent of the territory reflects the area of land required to gather enough feed to rear chicks.  Territories are usually between 50 and 100 sq. metres.

• The habitat chosen by Wirebirds is level or gently sloping open ground and can be semi-desert or pasture.
• When defending its territory, a Wirebird will fight strenuously to keep other Wirebirds away from it.  It is the male’s job to defend the territory.  Chicks straying from an adjacent territory are also attacked.
• When predators approach a nest the parent will move away from the nest and run, hop and swoop up and down to distract the threat away from the nest. 
• The most interesting distraction tactic is to spread the wings to full span but give the appearance of having a broken wing.
• Wirebirds mate for between two and seven minutes and do so energetically.
• Wirebirds normally lay two eggs and sometimes just one.  If two eggs, the second egg is laid 2 or 3 days after the first.
• New laid eggs are light blue with dark spots.  They gradually change colour to dark brown with black spots as the chick becomes ready to hatch.
• The adult and male will take turns incubating eggs.  Usually one turn lasts for 20 to 30 minutes.
• Eggs are incubated for 25 to 28 days.
• Eddie Duff can accurately estimate the day a chick will hatch by the colour tones of the egg.
• Two hours after hatching, chicks can feed themselves.
• Thirty-five days after hatching a chick is fledged.
• A chick takes ten months to reach maturity.
• Juveniles move around the Island more than adults, they flock together whereas adults feed alone and they act as sentries for an adult breeding pair, giving warnings when a potential predator approaches.
• Wirebirds often select different mates every one or two years.  When a pair look for different mates it is not always the male who holds the territory.  A powerful female can persuade the male to establish another territory elsewhere.
• Successful breeding pairs may stay together longer.
• Sometimes a male may have two females, alternating between them every 30 minutes to an hour.
• Wirebirds live well together with cows.  Cows do not trample nests and Wirebirds are seen following cows to feed on insects they disturb as they move.
• Wirebirds search for insects that use cow dung as a habitat.
• Field cameras have recorded Mynah birds, cats and sheep destroying eggs or chicks.  One camera recorded a Wirebird sitting on a sheep’s head and vigorously pecking its forehead as it approached its nest.
• Wirebirds surviving to adulthood can live for six to ten years.
• Wirebirds have shown they can adapt well to change, which may explain why they are the last remaining endemic avian species on St Helena

Related Information

Conserving the Wirebird - Project Page

Start of mitigation project for the Wirebird