Australian birds – Page 10

Almost didn’t see you there

December 21, 2020

…hiding up in that gum tree. It’s a white cockatoo.

I’m following the growth of these Darters in a nest close to my house. They are becoming more adventurous and were out of the nest as I approached. They scrambled back to the nest and were more interested in waiting for mum to return than to bother about me. Mum was sitting on a log watching, and didn’t come by while I was waiting.

They are still downy, but and really growing, gaining weight and strength. And they are still hungry!

More photos of the darters. When they were very young. and the rest of the family.

Darter babies – growing up

December 11, 2020

I photographed a family of darters, mum, dad and three chicks a week ago. Now a week on, what a difference! More pics here.

They still look up, watching for a parent to return to feed them. Sadly, there are now only two. I noticed the difference between them previously. These two were much more aggressive about being fed. I imagine the weaker one got pushed out of the nest. They’ve grown so much, there really isn’t any room in it for another one. They are still so soft and downy looking.

This was a week ago.

Now they’ve put on weight!!!.

Darter babies feeding

December 5, 2020

These are the three Darter babies I’ve been watching. Here they are sharing the meal their parents served up to them.

Find their family here.

The Darter Family

December 4, 2020

A family of Australasian Darters has a nest on the water’s edge very close to our house. I spent some time watching their behaviour and was lucky enough to get close enough to get some detailed photographs.

I’m only guessing that the dark bird might be the dad. He took his turn feeding the young and looking after the nest.

Here’s mum, at least I think it’s mum, taking her turn to look after the nest. There are three chicks, two much more active than the third.

And here’s the family portrait. There are three very downy chicks in the nest. The parent birds had their mouths full and fed the chicks. You can see the chicks with full mouths in the pic above.