For My New Photo Gallery Click Here
More Photos In This Series

Tuesday 24 May 2011

Here comes the fledgling

The recent bad weather in Hong Kong had caused another casualty in the bulubul family as I found a dead chick in the garden several days ago. But the fact that the parents still continued to feed the chicks meant that there was still hope.

The young Red-whiskered Bulbuls are usually fed caterpillars and insects in the first couple of weeks of their life, which are gradually replaced by fruits and berries. The fruiting mulberry tree near my house proved to be very handy for the parents.

But the ripe mulberries were too soft to carry home in big chunks,



so they had to do with the less ripened berries. 





Occasionally, they brought home other types of berries and fruits too. 



The ripe papayas in the garden were also difficult to carry around in large pieces. 


A few days ago, I saw the parents flying around a small tree, and then I realized that the little chicks  must have fledged.  

After a very careful search, I found one little fledgling hiding among tree leaves. It seemed that only one chick survived in this brood.


The fledgling was still dependent on the parents for food in the first few days, but the feeding frequency was much less than before.




The young bird was growing very fast.


I saw the youngster jumping up and down the trees searching for food a couple days ago and I am sure it will fly away very soon. The parents, on the other hand,  may just have enough time for the second breeding of this year.

8 comments:

Janny said...

Fantastic serie and beautiful birds well done
Greetings Janny

John @ Beans and I on the Loose said...

I am enjoying your continuing tale of this bird family. Raising young must be a hard job. Nearby we had a Great Horned Owl family who had a fledgling fall from its perch high up. The local wildlife center took it in for safe keeping till he could be on his own safely.

John Holmes said...

Saw my first juvenile Red-whiskered Bulbuls of the year in Tai Po Kau this week.... they were wet, too !

Vanessa Mickan said...

I am really enjoying hearing about this pair's attempts to raise young. I miss seeing Red-Whiskered Bulbuls. I used to get them all the time at my kitchen window in Sydney, Australia, but there are none here in Connecticut. Thank you!

HANS-PETER ZÜRCHER said...

Grossartige Aufnahmen! Sehr schön....

Liebe Grüsse

Hans-Peter

Birdy Official said...

Very interesting, beautiful and detailed series of pictures. Thanks for sharing.

Mike Barth said...

Lovely series ! Sad about the brood but I guess this is the natural world!

Lili-Geneviève said...

So cute this bird!

Quel magnifique oiseau!

Mignon quand il vous regarde de face, avec son fruit dans le bec!