Collared Kingfisher, Part lll - fledgling

The Collared Kingfisher chick that fledged suddenly came across as a surprise move as it was not seen to undergo a typical avian period of appearance and feeding at the nest entrance.

And more surprise was to unfold with the parents' behaviour with their new fledgling.

This one chick of the pair of Collared Kingfisher fledged one early morning approximately 21 days later, and was seen in the late afternoon quietly perched high on a tree.

However, with the parents' apparent knowledge that its chick had fledged, it was a surprise then that this one still brought a lizard prey to the nest later in the afternoon as if the chick was still inside.

It immediately exited to scan the surrounding, perhaps, for its fledgling.  Unfortunately it couldn't be ascertained if this was fed eventually to the new fledgling.

Just as strange was the behaviour of another parent that caught a beetle and subsequently downed it whilst the fledgling perched close by.  It would be natural to expect the new fledgling to be still fed.

All in all, it was pretty challenging to locate a fledgling that decided that all it wanted was to perch quietly and almost motionless for hours.  However even stillness needed occasional flexing to relax the body and wings, whose movements finally revealed its location.

Yet, it was even harder trying to decipher the parent's behaviour as it sat quietly below the fledgling.  Although it did fly off, could even be heard whacking a prey and was expected to return to feed the young, but it did not.

In fact the young could be heard to make tiny calls as if asking to be fed, which was totally ignored by the parent.

Eventually this parent left the young to perch away.  Unexpectedly the young suddenly also took off to join the parent.

And then what unfolded came as a shock.

As the young looked up at the parent moving about above, the parent shockingly flew down and swiped it off the branch.

It landed on the branch below to be confronted again by the parent, and what looked like feeding certainly wasn't, as it was a locking of beaks, and an aggressive chase-off!

AI overview:

Parent birds bite, tap, or lock beaks with their fledglings for three primary reasons: to force the fledgling to forage independently, to signal that feeding time is over, or as an exploratory "beaking" behavior. In the wild, adults use this tough love to encourage fledglings to leave the nest and fend for themselves

And then it happened again.

This time the young refused to budge and the parent flew off, with the situation remaining as it was as evening fell.

A most unnatural parent behaviour with a new fledgling - instead of feeding its new fledgling, it came across as aggressively chasing its fledgling away, to find its own food, so soon upon its fledging!

And the next day it recurred.

When this parent caught a beetle it took it to where the juvenile was.

Instead of feeding it, it merely stayed apart.

Almost soon after, another flew in, and displayed the same behaviour, biting the juvenile's beak.

And so it's to the big bad world out there for this young one, although it did not seem to have the courage to venture beyond familiar territory yet.

Cutting a lonely, and lonesome figure as it came across as still hopeful for parental provision.

A couple of days later, the entire family was nowhere to be seen, or heard.

Collared Kingfisher, Part ll - nestling feeding

 It was about three weeks later after the pair had copulated that they began to bring preys which suggested the presence of a chick (that there was only one when it finally fledged).

My first sighting of the birds arriving at the nest with tiny preys such as insects and centipedes.

At this stage, going by the extent of the parent's thrust into the nest presumably placing the preys straight into the chick's throat, the nest could not be too deep.

Throughout the week preys were still mainly small ones except for an occasional lizard delivered whole.  Bigger preys such as frogs and skinks were more commonly seen in subsequent weeks.

Other typical preys that would have been caught would have been crustaceans and crabs which unfortunately would not be readily available in an urban park such as this.

On a rare occasion this kingfisher was able to swoop down to the ground directly below to catch a beetle which it naturally battered before delivering into the nest.