Fantail master builder

Once upon a time, when nest building began in earnest, and I meant in earnest, there's nothing but admiration for these nifty Pied Fantails.

Every part of the body was engaged in the building, including the cheek!

And this was the main component of the nest, spider web though not the usual white colour one.

The materials were so soft that it simply clung to and veiled the entire face of the bird.

And straight to work.

But sometimes things didn't work out so smoothly, when one's handling such silky stuff!

And it's always team work.

It looked like not all materials were suitable for a neat cup of a nest as this string of a twig was eventually discarded.

Well, just got to wait for reinforcement which finally arrived.

Whilst the other flew off obviously to forage for more stuff, this one got down to work with a more fitting twig.

One of the master builder's touch was to use its body to mould the interior of the nest.

The other mate returned with more silky stuff and this went straight for the outer cup.

Another rounding off would surely go a long way.

Meanwhile the female mate returned to rotate duty.

It looked like the female was more thorough as she moved 360 degrees to pat down the nest.

Okay, time to take over again as the male returned.

Portrait of a master builder, but ....

... not too happy at been watched!

Nevertheless, taking some time off, after he's completed his share of work, like man like avian?!

The female returned, all enmeshed again, and she tirelessly went through the whole works again.

Aha, looked like she found something not to her satisfaction.

And she set to work on it immediately.  And this went on through the hours as the birds took turns to hone their nest, a picture of domestic harmony!