It was as heartwarming as fascinating to watch the chicks grow noticeably over a period of more than 35 days and started to resemble and behave like adults.
At this stage their forehead, eyebrows and ear stripes appeared pale rufous or rusty unlike the white in adults. The wings also carried fine, light rufous margins. Lighter rufous colouration spread across the bellies. The beaks and cere were also lightly rufous.
It became increasingly common to see the siblings stacking on top of one another awaiting their parents' return, with food.
They ate holding small preys with their claws.
They constantly bobbed their heads, and preened one other inside the nest.
And the nest definitely was too small now for these young ones as they were all over each other trying to vie for 'front seat'. Curiosity at the outside world was now their pre-occupation.
They learnt about housekeeping too from their parents, discarding unwanted like wings out of the nest.
More than 30 days onwards, the older one more than hinted that he/she was ready to leave!
As for the parents, they were still busy trying to feed their babies, leading to one unusual and most amusing occasion.
It was easy to deliver food when the preys were small such as dragonflies and moths. Delivery was merely to the entrance edge.
However, on one stunning occasion, an almost hilarious drama played out when there were eight failed attempts by the male to deliver a bird prey into the nest!
A couple times he appeared to fail to pass the prey in his claws to his beak into the nest, and a couple of times he managed to enter the nest but exited again with the prey in beak.
1st, 2nd 3rd time entering the nest - failed
4th, 5th time -failed again
6th, 7th time - failed again
8th, failed yet again, took it away again trying to further break apart the prey.
And finally success, delivering it in his beak - all in all his entire attempt took a grand total of almost nine minutes.
And then the anticipated happened the next day.
One fledged just after noon, approximately 36 days later.
And the next day just as the first fledgling exited after re-entering the nest the evening before, the second fledgling followed out seconds after his sibling.
Second fledgling
On the same day, what appeared to be the next older one showed no sign of attempting to fledge.
It would take another two days after the first fledgling for this one to muster courage to leave the nest.
The fledged juveniles continued to enter and exit their nest frequently that it was initially challenging to ascertain if the fledged ones were not the yet-to-fledge ones!
The three fledglings
Eventually six days after the fist chick fledged, the last one did.
This chick had already melted many hearts with its looks, and constant appearance at the nest entrance.
This eventually flew out, and down, and crash-landed onto a lower branch, unlike its older siblings that made it farther and to more stable landing.
It took more than a few seconds for it to find its balance, its comfort zone, settle down and decide its next perch.
Making another flight.
Meeting the parent for the first time since fledging, with the parent having first flown into the nest thinking that this one was there.
And what did it do meeting the parent for the first time, probably asking for food, prompting the parent to leave to hunt.
Some observations and deductions:
1. As the chicks grew into juveniles in order to attempt to identify them as individuals the following features were applied:
a. colourations of juveniles
b. ear stripes and patches
c. comparison of poses brought forth their distinctiveness
[AI Overview:
Fledgling age: fledgling is typically several weeks after hatching; for Microhierax species fledgling often occurs in the 30-40 day range but can vary. They transition from tiny, blind pink-skinned hatchlings covered with white down into striking, fierce pocket-sized raptors with bold black, white and rufous plumage.
As the world's smallest birds of prey, their transformation happens rapidly over roughly a one-month nesting cycle.]
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