Incubating Willie Wag tail Eggs (1 Viewer)

Hello!
I'm seeking some wisdom on how to incubate Willie Wag tail eggs. While I have been a research ecologist and entomologist for many years, I confess to being rather clueless about birds.

Today, a Willie wag tail nest in our back yard eaves blew over, due to strong winds. Mum and Dad Willie abandoned the scene and we rapidly discovered one little egg on the ground, that survived the fall, intact!

I have placed the nest and egg beneath a lamp with 60 w globe. I have been diligently monitoring the temp. I'm wondering if this is enough? I've been scouring the Internet and research papers for info on incubation conditions for Willie wag tail eggs, but have not found much of value. Just some data that suggests that eggs have a greater viability rate, when laid after Nov 30th in Australia, which could mean that they like the warm.

Any help, suggestions of info would be greatly valued and appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Elisha

Hi there and a warm welcome to you from those of us on staff here at BirdForum :t:

My best suggestion would be to try and contact a wildlife rehabilitator in your area and try to get some info from them or to turn over the egg to them. Good luck.

Hi Elisha and a warm welcome from me too.

I'm sure you will enjoy it here and I hope to hear about all the birds you see when out and about. I can't really add anything to the advice that KC has given you, I'm afriad.

Good luck - let us know how you get on please.

My best advice would be either find another wagtail nest and put the egg in it, or destroy it. I very much doubt any rehab centre will do anything different.
Might sound defeatist and callous, but even if you manage to get it to hatch, and then feed it, and get it to adulthood, you can't release it as it would starve, so you then have a pet wild bird with all that entails. Not sure it's even legal to do this.

Sometimes just best to let nature take its course.

Mick