Majo,
These chicks are too cute. I love these photos. Thanks for keeping us updated and thanks for the info about kestral nesting habits. I hope they return next year.
I seriously doubt you can cause great harm by helping the mother with "finding" food. Birds of prey are natural hunters (in the East, falconers have a custom to release their falcons into the wild after 10 years of "service". And they survive just fine after being captive for so long).
Majo, where are you? I'm coming over right now!
Just joking. You are doing great I'm sure. Keep gathering crickets or grasshoppers and put some on your deck for the mom to feed to her chicks. Kestrels love insects like those.
However, I agree that handling the birds wouldn't necessarily be the best thing. I would help them with the food (be sure not to feed them too much though), but try not to touch them.
Kestrels around here are hunting each other all the time, they are screething, alien male was here today while chicks were alone, their mother came and she fighted him, he flew away. Yeah, the mother is real warrior Really, other kestrels are very afraid of her
On the way home, I checked the nest on 11. floor in my block, there were 5 chicks yesterday, now they are only 3! Yesterday, when I was going around, their mother was sitting on railing, making herself to look big (you know, that trick with feathers) and screetching, suddenly male came and they flew away together, they were chasing in the air.
I'm not sure what's going on, but when I come to balcony, I can hear kestrel screetching all around the street (there are 4 nests on street where I live), I'm afraid to leave chicks alone, when their mother is not around.
And today I have something special - the video! I've recorded it with my cell phone, sound's not good...
You can see tired chicks, landing mother, curious mother, curious chicks and cute chicks! Anyway I tried to capture how they are chasing in the air, but video is in very low resolution so it's not visible
72chevelle454 wrote:
majo, thanks for the update, those are the cutest little ugly chicks I have ever seen
Hope that new video just prove it
Octavio Salles wrote:
Don't be surprised or sad if the younger baby don't survive though, this is common and probably even expected.
Will see, I think that maybe one of them is much lergare because of their sex... ? But younger one will be warrior after mother, he's fighting very hard for food and he's swallowing like snake - half of liver in one peace and so.
netminder0 wrote:
Keep gathering crickets or grasshoppers and put some on your deck for the mom to feed to her chicks. Kestrels love insects like those.
However, I agree that handling the birds wouldn't necessarily be the best thing. I would help them with the food (be sure not to feed them too much though), but try not to touch them.
I'm still trying to translate, what kind of instect is cricket But I agree, babies are always gazing on flying fly, butterfly, .... Some instects have just woke up into summer and they are slowed down, so I'll try to catch something, what would chicks say on it
Anyway, I'm not touching babies untill it's not necessary. All I do is showing them my gloved hand, as thier mother knows it, so they can be sure, that it's not dangerous.
And finally som new photos:
26 - feeding
27 - older chick
28 - chicken stomach in kestrel's beak on flower pot
And some good news - older chick is able to stand up !
netminder0
thanks for the images, I found some others, but I'm still not able to determine what kind of insect it is, grasshopper is well known, I'm able to find them easy, but that other bug...
also, nothing interesting happened so far. Chicks are still growing up, older chick has very well visible feathers and gets brown colour around eyes. Younger is still very hungry
Hi Majo, thank you for sharing! Y'r doing great, and you are very lucky that she has chosen your balcony, with the love from you they all survive, big applause to you Majo
absolutely stunning , what ever you do im sure you will do your very best for them , its like a live tv documentry ( but more interesting !), the kestrel is one of my favourite birds , you are very lucky to have an opportunity to be able to view, photo , monitor and help the family. thanks
tank you all for your comments, I really appreciate it and I'm glad that people are interested in this story. Thank you again for your support and opinions, these are very helpful and comments give me feeling that you really want to know what will happened next.
Since yesterday mother radically changed her behavior to her chicks. She does not feed them anymore. She just brings them prey and flies away. They have to eat by themselfs, even it's quetly difficult for them, because their claws and beaks are not as strong as mothers. But they can handle it. Also, now I have to watch the younger chick wheter it is able to get as much food as it needs, because it's possible that older will eat whole prey by itself.
Mother is not around the nest anymore. She comes maybe 2 times a day and that's all.
Chicks are ok. They are healthy and since I replaced the role of their father, they have enough food. But now, no one guards them, just me.
30 - comparision photo of older chick
31 - older chick again
Thank you again for your c&c, I really appreciate them.
Thanks again Majo, the pics are great and I really love reading up on the progress of the chicks. The pictures you shot of the baffle in the nostril and the eye membranes are really good. I'm so envious of your having these wonderful little hawks on your balcony.
Had a Kestral for a year, when I was a kid, they were logging for a new home next door and they cut down a tree with a nest in it. Great set of photos, when I had the bird I never wore glove while handling her, she just never dug in whith her talons. One amazing occurance was when I took her to a friends house, he also had a kestral, we gave his male a chicken heart, he picked it up with one talon and hopped over to where my female was and dropped it in front of her, true love. The next summer I was trying to train her to fly off and come back, one day she never did.
tomm101 wrote:
Had a Kestral for a year, when I was a kid, they were logging for a new home next door and they cut down a tree with a nest in it. Great set of photos, when I had the bird I never wore glove while handling her, she just never dug in whith her talons. One amazing occurance was when I took her to a friends house, he also had a kestral, we gave his male a chicken heart, he picked it up with one talon and hopped over to where my female was and dropped it in front of her, true love. The next summer I was trying to train her to fly off and come back, one day she never did.
That's one of the most bittersweet things I've read in a long time. Its wonderful that she lived free, but its always sad to have to say good-bye to a pet.
I always wanted any type of bird of prey growing up, but, unfortunately (and fortunately I suppose), it isn't like taking a walk to the store to buy a loaf of bread. At least not in California with all the regulations and restrictions and whatnot ...
tomm101
it's a nice story thank's for sharing. Maybe next time you will be more succesfull with training.
I'm going to a trip for next 3 days, I'll come back on Saturday, so here are last photos before I travell. Mother comes back, she's around more often then before, she was standing on my hand again, but sometimes she's more scared. I'm glad she's around the nest, today chicks ate some mouse, it's good because now they need to eat whole prey. Because of their developing digestion, now they will eat whole preys including hair, bones,...
I think I'm going to change food I feed them with. Perhaps I'll buy som mice (I hope they're cheap and I will give it to mother so she will kill it, or I will kill it and give it to chicks.
32 - older chick, now it looks pretty fat, doesn't it? And I think, that it's female because of colour and pattern of feathers
33 - younger chick was hiding behind the older one so I wasn't able to make a better photo...also it is probably female too...so theyre two sisters
So chicks are great, helthy and tired from those extremely high temperatures, they just walk around on balcony and searching for shade. While I wasn't at home, they pretty growed up, now they look almost like adult kestrel.
Really, other kestrels are very afraid of her
