A kākāriki karaka nest goes roughly:-
- Prospecting - Anywhere from a few days/weeks up to several months.
- Nest preparation - 1 week
- Laying - 2 weeks
- Incubation - 3 weeks
- Hatchlings - 2 weeks
- Nestlings - 3 weeks
Nests can contain anywhere from one to ten eggs.
During the incubation and hatchling period, the male does not enter the nest. He will provide most of the food that the female and hatchlings need by feeding the female outside the nest. She will then pass the food onto her hatchlings.
About two weeks after hatching, the male may begin to enter the nest and feed the nestlings directly. The female will begin to leave the nest for longer periods and the pair may then start their next nest. For the last couple of weeks the male may be solely responsible for feeding the nestlings, this will initially be done inside the nest, but as the nestlings get ready to leave they will commonly be fed at the nest entrance.
Once the nest has fledged, the male (and perhaps the female if she isn't moving onto her next nest) takes care of the fledglings for a few weeks teaching them how to fly and find food. Within about six weeks they're pretty much independent.
If food is plentiful, nests will commonly overlap. So while the male is feeding the nestlings at Nest 1, the female will be preparing and laying at Nest 2. This is a busy time particularly for the male, as he will be gathering food, feeding his fledglings at Nest 1, then onto Nest 2 to feed his mate (or the other way around). Then when Nest 1 fledges, he'll be looking after his fledglings and also responsible for feeding his mate in Nest 2 while she incubates.
The below graphic shows roughly the chronology of two nests (although in a season this could become Nest 3, then Nest 4....)
