Friday 13 November 2015

Tawny Frogmouths nesting - Part 2


This post shows photos of the two young Frogmouths produced by the nesting parents featured in an earlier post dated Wednesday, 14 October 2015:

After observing the adult male incubating eggs by day for some time, they eventually hatched and two young reached the size where their heads appeared above the top of the nest rim.

When the young had reached a size where they could not be concealed within the nest, I became concerned on one visit when I could only see one of the young birds. 

Adult with one young bird visible on nest.

I walked around the tree twice to get different views of the nest to see if the other young bird was there, speculating as I went on what might have become of the missing chick. On a third round I managed to pick up what looked like a small head in the shadow of a branch. Closer inspection with the binoculars revealed the missing young one.

The missing young bird was found lying under the other two birds with its head just visible in the shade of a vertical branch – the photo exposure has been tweaked to make the missing bird clear.
 An adult plus two young were last seen on the nest by another observer on Sunday, 8 November 2015. I last saw them on Friday the 6th and when I visited the site on Tuesday the 10th, following a hot Monday, the nest was empty and I could not find any of the birds nearby.

Last photo of the nest with just one young bird visible. The other young one is there - see next photo.
My last photo of the two chicks before they left the nest.
 Hopefully the two young birds left the nest successfully and are roosting somewhere close by.

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