The Black-naped Oriole was seen to brood in late Feb and I have been following its progress until the lockdown, and so I guess with lots of time at hand, time to process the images taken. I only managed to photograph the Goshawk's two chicks over a couple of days so that's for a later posting, hopefully we would have gotten over the lockdown and I would be able to track the chicks again (anyway I was told these chicks will take a longer period, generally two months towards maturity).
So back to the Orioles, when I first discovered their nest, revealed by the constant calls of the birds and hovering about the tree.
I was not certain if the bird was brooding at this stage but if I were to go by my experience observing the yellow-vented bulbul's nesting, I would say that the bird was merely trying to lay its egg - it would normally look like it was in labour, with wide open beak but soundless.
Being away for a week, I returned to the spot and it looked like something was already in the nest, perhaps an egg but there was hardly any movement except for the bird sitting in the nest. Unfortunately the nest being high up meant that there was no way to confirm what's in or not there.
It was only after about another week later, that the Oriole was seen with a feed, and a little beak was seen, revealing a very hungry and demanding chick.
I waited for another feed but there was none, perhaps the parent was simply waiting for the other mate to bring one. Anyway if one were to chance upon the bird and nest, one wouldn't know there's a little one in there because it didn't emerge for a while.
And duty called, I left and could only return another day to observe (and so the story will continue into the next posting).
No comments:
Post a Comment