The Royal Albatross chick has gotten so big since I last posted a screenshot of her!
She also has a name - Tiaki.
Getting weighed, while the chick next door watches.
Stretching those growing wings. Still a long way to go before they're ready to soar.
The Cornell Redtail chicks have also grown a lot. Warning as usual with this nest that there's prey carcasses in pretty much every screenshot.
Sleeping in a pile.
Oh, hi dad! Dropping off a prey.
And bye dad. The task division between parents varies with different kinds of raptors, and with a lot of them the male doesn't spend much time at the nest, his role instead being to hunt to feed the family. While I've seen at plenty of Bald Eagle nests the dads, too, feed nestlings by tearing small pieces out of the prey and gently offering them to the chicks (and that they feel inclined to do so was quite fortunate for the 2017 season at the
Trio nest, where the two dads successfully raised their clutch to fledging by themselves, after their original female mate Hope died while their chicks were still tiny hathclings), in many raptors the male doesn't really have an instinct for the finer details of childcare and wouldn't know what to do beyond delivering the food to the nest. Different ways work for different birbs. There are occasional exceptions, though, it seems, such as last year at one Lesser Spotted Eagle (
Clanga pomarina) nest, where despite this behavior being atypical, I saw on one occasion
the male help the small eaglet eat a few bites when the female wasn't at the nest when he came in with a prey.
But back to the Redtails. Here's the youngest chick nibbling on a sibling's toes. May have been trying to clean their own and the sibling's got in the way, lol.
Mom digs up a chipmunk butt from the pantry for snacktime.
The little one is at the front row (from mom, not from camera).
A couple of closeups of the youngest chick after feeding.
A closeup of one of the older chicks (can't tell them apart, just the youngest who is a bit smaller). Note the prey bird's foot near the bottom right corner, and the chick's own foot near the opposite corner for comparison.
Wing exercises by the youngest.
Mom does some wing and leg stretches as well.
Big Red and her smol reds.
3 comments:
WOW Royal Albatross chicks sure take their time compared to other birds!
They take about 7½ months from hatching to fledge, and the parents only have one chick every other year. Makes every chick all the more precious on top of that they're endangered.
Wow. Little precious floff blobs, must be protected.
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