Banded Woodpecker

 Always enthralled till you leave.

A pair of Banded Woodpeckers, a bundle of brightness and texture, a pop-up not ever too eager to dismiss.

Dollarbird

 On a terribly terribly hazy morning, when dimness was the theme of the day, a Dollarbird high up albeit should be considered rather commonplace could still stir some excitement, and the arrival of a Banded Woodpecker could only be a bonus.

Banded Woodpecker

 For the past weeks, the family of Banded Woodpeckers had decided the taman would be its playground as they could be spotted and heard at different parts throughout the morning.

Then time seemed to stand still ...

... and trying to snooze came naturally.

... until rudely disturbed ....

What Was

 It started with a beautiful story, extraordinary and heart-warming.

The sights and sounds are still as vivid today as then.

The story will most definitely never die, having drawn innumerable to its site, and now even as the chosen had fallen.

So, will this spell the end of the presence of the Black-thighed Falconets?

I surely hope not, for even this morning, this pair still hover next to their lost home.

 A most sorry sight to behold.

What it was before.

The storm was mighty, taking down right at what were the weakest links - at the nest cavities that had inevitably hollowed out the branch.

However, an opportunity to glimpse what it looked like inside the Falconet's home, what still remained standing.

A home literally broken into two, a cavity pretty big that could even accommodate six falconets at a time.

And this was the erstwhile home of the Banded Woodpeckers, also taken apart, to display a remarkably smooth interior, the superb skill of woodpeckers.

Banded Woodpecker

It looked like a family of adult and sub-adult Banded Woodpeckers, a successful breeding from elsewhere - noisy, ceaselessly moving about, never far from one another but when one left, the rest did too.

And they started their play from almost at the tree base that I almost had to squat to get at them.

And it made a recent memory all the more poignant, of what could have been.

Taking their time to climb after the one that had gone way up.

It was challenging to pinpoint the adult from the junior.

Finally a better take of which is adult and which sub-adult.

Another young one that suddenly appeared to flee immediately at the call of another.

And  for curiosity sake, I couldn't help but walked over to check on the old Banded Woodpecker's cavity nest, just in time to see this young Black-thighed Falconet at the entrance.

And surprise, surprise, the parents were around too, an uncommon family presence around this time of the day, to which Juvy subsequently joined.