If there is a species of birds that the taman has successfully nurtured and claimed witness to generations of its kind, it must be the barbets, discounting the more common garden birds.
I have lost count of the number of generations of Coppersmith and Lineated Barbets born in this park.
A Coppersmith Barbet chick fledged successfully in early April. And the same tree has been reused countlessly, although different cavity nests were made, perhaps some holes merely bored as decoys over time.
An early sighting of the chick.
Viewed from a different angle, this branch seemed to have bend with the impact of the wind and rain during this nurturing period. Nevertheless the angle simply enhanced the agility of these birds.
The one chick hatched this time, looking like an 'overdue' fledgling, finally left the nest the next day after this sighting.
The Lineated Barbets were observed to have hatched four chicks, all fledged on different days. And I guess this is quite a record for this pair as it has been documented that one adult could hatch 2-4 eggs.
Well, a healthy park does provide for healthy productive birds!
The different profiles and antics of the chicks before fledging, one each every two days. As no two chicks ever appeared simultaneously at the cavity entrance, it was pretty difficult to differentiate them. It could even be the same chick that was frequently seen at the nest entrance.
These chicks were seen before any fledged.
The chicks that were seen, in one morning alone, after one has fledged. As there were only subtle differences among the three chicks, the following could be images of only one chick, or perhaps two or three, different chicks captured here (but having said that, one could discern at least two different chicks here!).
And the last one to fledge, looking pretty matured already, suggesting that it had benefited from indulgent feeding from the parents, being the only one left.
Looked like it could fly off any time but simply refused to, as it stood at the lip of the entrance.
And how the parent tried to lure it out on each feeding occasion!
And even flying off without giving it the entire feed, perhaps hoping the chick would go after it?!
And coming from an awkward angle to feed, another strategy?
It was all to no avail as another day passed before it would leave the nest finally.
(Hint: And what a morning this chick was to have when it finally fledged, and its tiny adventure did warrant a posting of its own!)
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