Monday, July 16, 2012

Updating the Family Photos



It seems odd to me in the bird world that size does not equate with maturity.  When you see a young bunny, you can tell it is a young bunny.  And that is true of fish and frogs, but not necessarily fowl.  This portrait of the three offspring of the osprey pair shows almost adult-sized birds, yet they still have not flown. Recognizing immature birds has more to with body coloration and patterns.  When you look at the young next to the parent bird, the difference becomes obvious.



The female (second from right)  has the main responsibility of nurturing the chicks.  Both the male and female share in the responsibility of protecting the nest. Here, they are all waiting for the male to bring in the fish he caught a little earlier.  I have noticed he has modified his routine slightly.  Instead of simply flying by with the fish and letting the female know he has caught one and will be bringing it back as soon as he has eaten, he lands on the nest, presumably to teach a lesson about obtaining food.  Once they have seen it, he flies off, returning later with the back-half of the fish. Here they are awaiting his return.  Instead of the female feeding them, they are probably feeding themselves at this point.


Try to imagine all three babies testing their wings at the same time and you can see why I think the nest is too small.  Over the next couple of weeks, they will learn what they are capable of doing with their wings by practicing in the nest.  Eventually, they will begin to hop up a foot or two and "learning how to walk," as it were, by kiting over the nest.  The square footage of the nest box does not provide much room for that to take place with three chicks.  It may be that the female will move to a nearby tree to give them a little more space.

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