The plight of a barbet fledgling,II/II

It's a long post for a long morning for a little avian fella.

 When I arrived at the nest site, the last Lineated Barbet chick had fledged and was all alone on a nearby tree.  It was reported to have suddenly shot off from its cavity nest, got spooked by an Asian koel and sought sanctuary in this tree, where it would stay on to call constantly for its parents for almost two hours continuously.

It was observed that its last feed was about one and a half hour before it fledged so it meant that this little one had no food for more than three hours now.  

It did appear to be weak when it tried to stand on one feet to scratch a couple of times and lost its balance each time.

And when it couldn't lift a foot to scratch its beak, it had to ease it by rubbing its beak on the branch.

And so what did a fledgling have to do while waiting for its parents for its feed, and the parents were seen to fly above and over it a few times perhaps to lure it to them.  It did have energy to fluff, stretch and preen.

Oh mine, what big ... eh, small tongue you have!  This one was seen repeatedly to make these wide soundless movements. 

It was either out of hunger or simply boredom that caused it to peck about as if seeking food.

It was quite distressing to watch the little one's reaction when it heard its parent's calls, hoping for an appearance, and none came.

And finally when it decided that it had had enough, and the parents were not coming for it, it made a dash for another tree, however, it could make only a short flight being weak and a new fledgling, and it was almost disastrous but for the dexterity of a bird, even a fledgling. 

Unfortunately the light and unsteady palm leaf was almost its undoing.

A little respite until it decided that it needed to move on, and it did up along the spine and leaf blades.

Another anxious moment as it made the wrong hop to a hanging vine where it clung on and swung about precariously.

Fleeing for safer site, but another wrong judgement!

Another struggle to right itself.

Yet into another entanglement.

And all in all it was almost 10 minutes before it could breathe easy.

It finally managed to get itself to more comfortable refuge and eventually a parent did appear to feed it after an hour and a half at its last stop.

But not before it stumbled one more time, making for a 'mess' of an image.

Notwithstanding its tumbles and fumbles, this new fledgling appeared to be holding out pretty well after being without food for more than four hours now as it continued to call out to its parents.

Trying to peck off a leaf, out of hunger or frustration!

It certainly outstayed me as I left without witnessing the parent come for it but was simply happy to know that there was a happy closure after all, ie the parent appeared finally with an insect feed, so this was after more than seven hours following its first feed!