Black-thighed Falconets - Part V, new fledglings

 And the story continued as four new lives entered the avian world.

What could be more endearing, mini raptors aside, was that these new fledglings were simply cuteness personified!

A treat from the mother to her first fledgling who made the bold transition into the wide wide world - offering a bird prey first before taking the balance into the nest for the yet-to-fledge.

Cleaning up after a meal came naturally.

It was simply instinctive that this 1st fledgling found its way back into the nest later in the evening, but fumbling along the way.

At its first attempt it flew straight into the branch a few inches away missing the cavity entrance, and it was only successful the second time.

The next day, much had been learnt and it was no longer a crash and fumble, but time to pause and check out around the nest, and for a reverse view, a nest it had inhabited for the last more than 35 days.  It was in no hurry to reenter as its parent left.

And for this one, a lesson learnt too - that one simply couldn't return to the nest as and when desired; this time a parent was inside which blocked its immediate entrance.

As new fledglings they naturally displayed curiosity with their surroundings like nibbling at twigs (as characteristically seen with other species fledglings too), and still finding their balancing.

And eating while on the perch was not easy either.

But it eventually learnt the way to the real deal.

They competed for food from their parent as well as between themselves.

Sibling rivalry - winner took all.

Not giving up yet.

It ain't over until it's over.

For all that rivalry, the siblings frequently engaged in allopreening when together.

Highly 'affectionate' with parents too.

As for the parents, especially the female, it was spring cleaning the nest as soon as all but one of her chicks fledged.

A most unusual way of clean-up as the female reversed out of the nest with leftovers and rejects whilst simultaneously and cleverly brushing out all the dried remains along the nest entrance.

And it had been the female all the time refreshing the nest!

 

In addition, it looked like the parents themselves might be going through a challenging period, besides managing their young, managing their 'relationship' (this is explored in the next Part VI as I try to understand this unusual behaviour).

The four siblings as new fledglings

Some observations and deductions:

1. It was still mainly the female that was busy hunting for food and returning to feed the fledglings.

2. The parent fed first a big prey to the young on the outside perch and the balance would be taken into the nest for the rest.  However if food is taken into the nest first, she would take part of it out for the young outside.  Small catches like moths, beetles, dragonflies were given wholly to the young outside.

3. The nest was cleaned soon after the fledglings left as the nest continued to be used by these young ones, an  uncommon trait in the general avian world.

4. Since the chicks fledged and with mainly the female doing the feeding, the male came across often like attempting to take over the prey caught by the female which resulted in sharp shrieky exchanges between the two but it mainly ended with the female successfully holding on to the prey and feeding it to the young.   (Part VI will highlight and try to understand this unusual behaviour.)