(This posting will conclude my journey with the Black-thighed Falconets as the brood of four continue to be seen around the taman as they learn to hunt, miss their targets, wait forlornly for food from their parents, eventually to grow into the tiniest of raptors playing their role in the cycle of life.)
More than a week now since the first one fledged, and now deemed young juveniles, these young ones learnt to achieve balance as they took (more often than not, seized) food from the parents to eating on perch.
Whatever it was, a juvenile was always on the mark when a parent returned with food.
Seizing from the parent as soon as one landed with a catch, and no sharing.
Approached, the winner fled.
And no sharing, again.
In this case, the juvenile pounced on the parent immediately as the parent flew in with a scaly-breasted munia prey.
Flew off with the fully-dressed bird, to a lower branch over the pond, and attempted to pluck off the feathers.
This one had certainly taken on, perhaps, one of more than its weight as it struggled to de-feather the munia.
Eventually it dropped the prey, into the pond!
Flew off without attempting to retrieve it - a parent's hard work all for naught.
On another occasion, a parent flew in with a swift bird prey to a regular perch to defeather the prey, as a juvenile was seen intent on joining her on the branch.
Immediately she took off, as if heading towards the nest before making a u-turn seeing that the juvenile was closing on her.
Returning to the perch and promptly joined by the juvenile.
Within seconds, the young one had seized and fled with the prey!
Managing to retrieve the prey, the parent took it to the upper canopy of a tree to defeather. Unfortunately thereafter was nowhere to be seen with this catch.
Many chicks, young birds had fallen prey to the Falconet parents during this period.
This time it looked like the latest prey could be a Spectacled Spiderhunter's chick as an adult suddenly appeared when this prey was being eaten.
The Falconet parent's instinct kicked in as she paused feeding her juvenile, and then everything was over in seconds, when the Spectacled Spiderhunter conceded its loss and fled.
Having overcome the Spiderhunter, the female parent took her catch to another spot to feed her three fledglings, unaware that another seize-and-flee was in the offing.
Whilst the parent continued to feed the nearest to her, one sibling looked like it was planning to leave, perhaps feeling neglected.
Suddenly turning round, it edged its way to its parent's side!
Managed to wedge between the parent and a sibling.
And deciding it wanted more, started a tug-of-war with its parent.
Success, as it fled with the entire catch!
It was soon obvious that the parents were trying to get the juveniles to go out and hunt.
On this occasion, the male parent persistently ignored and evaded the young who came across as crying for food.
Continuing to pursue the parent who refused to respond, and trying to look cute did not help!
Joined by another hopeful.
Eventually all the juveniles came together but the parents were no where to be seen.
However it had happened that when seeing its juveniles preening and passive on the perch, a parent had zoomed in shrieking sharply, sending the juveniles fleeing!
This one being the latest to fledge, seen cosying up perhaps for a feed, only to have the parent leave.
Trying its luck with an older sibling with prey, it failed to get a share.
The parents were seen increasingly and deliberately staying away from its the young in their determination to bring up independent juveniles over the days.
The last time I chanced upon the brood, each was perched away from the other. And no parents were seen in the immediate vicinity.
I believe this scenario would continue to play out till the juveniles were strong enough to move out, hunt far and wide for themselves.
Some observations and deductions:
1. Sibling rivalry was most inevitable now.
2. The older ones stood apart from the new fledglings - being faster, being more aggressive; and a not-sharing attitude became natural among these siblings as they vied for food brought by the parents.
3. Domineering and winning meant being more alert and on the mark, always the first to jump on the parents' catch as soon as the parents landed on the same branch. Snatching preys right from the parents and fleeing with it was common.
