breathing space: fledgeling

Showing posts with label fledgeling. Show all posts

Monday, May 1

The nesting neighbors, Part 2

While the barbets were busy with their family, the Yellow-vented Bulbuls were also off to a prolific start. As I was seated on a garden bench, a pair of bulbuls kept circling around me, busy catching moths in flight and looking around, under and over each and every bush. That they were too busy to pay me much mind was a sure sign that they had only one goal: to feed a growing nestling! I watched them closely and sure enough both of them headed straight for a low branch of the rambutan tree, to be met with the eager chirping of two fledglings!

A very hungry baby

I am always amazed at the amount of energy invested in raising a family. I doubt any small insect or moth has much of a chance surviving when there is a bulbul pair agressively hunting them down to feed a hungry chick.

An adult scouring every nook and cranny for food

In this case, there were 2 chicks - little balls of feathers with hardly any tails and huge mouths agape. They were big and strong enough to jump around nearby branches, getting uber excited when one of the adults lands nearby.

Two balls of feathers patiently waiting for mom and dad...

... and they go crazy when mom/dad come with food!

I was quite afraid they would miss their mark as they tried to out jump/ out fly each other in order to get to the parent before its sibling.

Knowing there was a pair of fledglings in the yard, it was easy to keep track of them over the days. The eager chirping would easily give away which tree they were in. They stayed around the garden for a couple of weeks, and began to stray from back to front yard as they grew more confident in their flight.

Growing older and getting bigger

But no less demanding!

Sadly, only one of the fledglings apparently made it to adulthood from what I could tell. While watering the plants in the garden, Kuya Ramil found a young dead bulbul in the leaf litter, being consumed by ants.

Over before it really began for this little one.

"I think it was one of the ones we were keeping track off," he told me.

Sure enough, an adult flew past us followed by a single noisy, nagging young bird. I remember WBCP-er Des telling us that only one in ten tropical nests are successful, so it shouldn't have come as a surprise to find the young dead bird.

I wonder what caused its death though? It was quite strong and developed already. Did the parents not have enough energy to raise 2 birds to full adulthood? Did it meet an untimely death with an encounter with a predator? Was it an accident?

I suppose we will never know.

I've seen at least two new bulbul nests in the yard, most probably from different pairs, but maybe a second nest for the season for the parents.

Hopefully, this one made it.

And life goes on for the garden bulbuls.

Sunday, May 8

Untiring devotion

I wonder where mom is? Hmmm... Should stretch a bit while waiting. Is that her? Is it? Is it? IS THAT HER?!?

Mooooother!!!! Where've you beeeeeen? I'm soooo hungryyyyyy! Feed meeeeeeeh!

Food! Food! Food! Glorious food!

To all hard-working, devoted mothers out there... a salute to you! Thank you for your ceaseless caring and inexhaustible passion!

Friday, April 24

Stalking the neighbors

Having spent the weekend away from home in Ilocos to check on migrating raptors, I was anxious to check on the progress of the Philippine Pied Fantail and Yellow-vented Bulbul fledgelings in the backyard.

We arrived straight from Ilocos at 730am, and I was delighted to find the fantail chicks already out of the nest and jumping around the branches of the tamarind tree. Their parents were busy as ever, searching for food and feeding the young ones. It was a nice view from the second floor bedroom window, I tried to get a photo, but it turned out a bit blurry because of the screen.

Parent and child: an artistic filter care of a dusty screened window.

During the week, before leaving for work, I would do a quick round of the garden to try and spy the bulbuls. My mom said that she had seen them on Sunday on a bush a few meters away from the nest tree. They stayed in the area and were quite easy to find, one just had to listen carefully for excited chirping and tweeting and look carefully for the parents coming back and again.

I had a chance to get home from work with the sun still up on Thursday, so I had more time to check on the birds.

The fantails had moved on to the neighboring mango tree. They were pretty high up, but they were easy to spot as they were already moving about quite actively and even fanning out and flicking their tiny tails like the adults would.

Mini-Philippine Pied Fantails: behaving like adults already!

Their parents were amazingly adept at catching all sorts of critters for their 2 young. They would comb through the mango trees and fly across the garden and be back in no time. Always excited to greet them (and quite aggressively at that!) were 2 hungry mouths wide open.

Feed me!!!

A bit of good news though for the parents, it seems the babies are growing up fast, and at least one of the parents now has some "me" time. We caught it taking time for a quick dip in the bird bath!

Dad (or mum) sneaking in a quick bath in between feedings!

Across the yard the young bulbul pair was making similar progress. They were a bit older and flew around the area of three trees as they chased their own busy parents.

The young bulbuls in the rambutan tree right of the makopa nest tree.

It was more difficult to catch a photo of them with mum or dad since they would be off from their perches to meet their parents as soon as they spied them approaching with food.

The young bulbuls in the rambutan tree left of the makopa nest tree!

But that afternoon Adri and I had another discovery: there was another bulbul family in the garden! As we were setting up a new bird bath in the front yard, we heard a familiar twittering call above us. It was another pair of Yellow-vented Bulbul young! These looked a little older than the pair in the backyard. We had earlier suspected a bulbul nest in the mango tree on the sidewalk outside our fence (we would see a pair of bulbuls regularly entering the canopy a few weeks before), but we never put effort into finding it. It turns out our suspicions were correct!

Another bulbul family in the front yard!

This pairs chirps already sounded very bulbul-like, a soft luclac gurgle. As we watched them, here came one of their parents, ready to pass on some food.

FEED ME!!!

Having 3 growing (bird) families in the garden is the coolest thing! I'm looking forwards to seeing the young birds get stronger and start flying around after their parents. I hope my stalker days following their progress will extend into the next few weeks. Hopefully, they will continue to hang around the garden!