The wait was still on.
The juvenile/s aged more than four weeks now, challenging me to identify if these heads belong to one or more chicks!
It's already into the fifth week since I sighted the full grown chick/s that still had not fledged despite the parents's obvious intent to urge it/them to do so. And the feedings got more interesting too as the parent began this 'tug-of-war' with its young (thus well deserves this dedicated posting on feeding, second one though after II/V on Food Variations).
Feeding has always been one of the most enjoyable observations during a nesting despite similar foods and styles for a lot of avian species.
An interesting episode was observed where the parent looked like it deliberately stepped back and down to lure the chick out.
Flying straight in and on target, or so, almost depositing fruit straight into the juvenile....
... then stepping down, which came across like it's a tease after all...
... then enticing it off the hole entrance
When the feed was an insect it looked like it's a struggle to ensure the insect was properly passed on to the young and in this instance it took twice as long compared to a fruit feed, to have the young finally swallowed its insect meal.
Another insect feed, a common Green Chafer Beetle (Anomala albopilosa) and what looked like a tricky feeding perhaps for fear of losing the insect prey that could still be partially alive.
Only the third insect prey, another beetle within two hours of of mainly Ficus fruit feeds.
And the last insect feed for the morning that looked like a dragonfly.
But it's a different but consistent strategy and stance when it came with the tiny fig feeds, stretching back and away from the hole entrance.
And it looked like it's the same parent that always came with fruits, flying straight into the nest hole whilst the one that came with insects would pause on an adjacent branch before it went to the young.
Another sideward and wayward feeding.
Two days later, feeding was reported to be frequent before 9.00am and one parent appeared only about 20 minutes later again with fruits followed by another with a barely visible insect prey.
Could this insubstantial meal have triggered the first major decision that this young juvenile had to make?
What an entry it had made into the outside world!
One can only say Bravo!
So the scan began for the other juvenile which until now its existence was still a speculation as it was near impossible to know if it was one and the same or two different heads that had been popping out for the past weeks, despite my fleeting glimpse of two beaks weeks ago.
Another chorus of thrills when this one decided to show itself.
So the ultimate question was Will it too or Will it not today?
Left alone, it called and scanned, called and scanned.
Monitoring closely now for fear that I would miss another big moment, patience paid off!
About six minutes later, this juvenile also decided to fledge! And in the same direction as its sibling into the tree directly across the nest.
I could hear my heartbeats quicken when I saw this pose ....
And there it went!
Another Bravo!
In retrospect: the two juvenile siblings, and from appearance looked like there's a male and female.
And one would think that we've got a happy and perfect ending, but nevertheless an amusing one was to follow.
The sudden and unexpected arrival of a parent with a beak-ful of figs at the hole entrance shortly after stunned us as much as it must have stunned the parent to have discovered an empty nest!
After a quick peer into the nest, the parent looked up in puzzlement, then a quick scan around and it flew in the direction of the tree across, perhaps a parental instinct or could it have seen its juveniles waiting in the thick of the tree.
It certainly hadn't expected the last one to fledge too!
What a memorable closure to this story with this uncommon avian behaviour!
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