A Coppersmith barbet (megalaima Haemacephala) was spotted digging a hole in a tree that had no more leaves. Little by little, it used its beak to remove the wood in the tree bark to create a hole. By the time I was there, there was quite alot of wood shavings at the foot of the tree, so I guess it must have been at it for quite awhile. It was interesting to note that every few seconds of digging or so, it would turn its head to look around (presumably looking around at its surroundings)
Have alot of reasons to believe that it's a hole for breeding purposes :P
Cited from http://animals.jrank.org/pages/949/Barbets-Capitonidae-BEHAVIOR-REPRODUCTION.html:-
The nest is usually a hole in decayed or dead trees (in branches for smaller species), but can also be former termite mounds or burrows within sand or earthen banks. The hole enters a vertical shaft and ends in a widened chamber where females lay two to five white eggs. The incubation period (time to sit on eggs before hatching) varies, but is twelve to fourteen days in some species, while it is eighteen to nineteen days in other species.
YAYYY. Sadly, there are no photographs to document this.
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