Majo

Keep up the good work with these birds. The photos are excellent.

And good luck with the feeding. Hope the links I sent continue to be helpful.

Great photos..Have you considered leaving a freshly killed mouse on your balcony? Are they available at a pet store near you?

BDA7 wrote:
Great photos..Have you considered leaving a freshly killed mouse on your balcony? Are they available at a pet store near you?

Why would he want to do this? Let the birds hunt by themselves... it's the best thing he can do for the future of them.

Hand feeding is only good for your pet. Many birds, including all raptors as far as I know put out eggs in an unsincronized (sp?) way. A few babies, the younger ones specially, will be weaker and will not be able to compete with the older brother for food. The older brother will ultimately lead him to starvation. This is a VERY IMPORTANT educational part of their lives! That's why evolution did it this way, don't mess with it. Competition starts at the nest. Hand feeding would only make both babies more dependent and all around weaker predators that likely won't survive very long out there.

Octavio
you're right and that's why I'm not doing it. Anyway, chicks don't want food from anyone, except their mother.

I'm not sure, if you red other posts, but this is emergency situation, and I can choose whether they all die, or they will alive. I'm not feeding all of them, I'm helping them to survive. I'm giving food to the mother, but I'm making it hard for her, I don't just put meat to her beak. I'm fighting with her, hiding the food, even when she takes it, I'm taking it back from her beak. She has to fight me, seek the food on the balcony, it takes her around 10 minutes then she can get it and feed her chicks, so don't even think that I'm pampering them Anyway, you can't beat their basic natural instincts.
I want them to survive, and only way how to make it is help mother with feeding, because the main source of food - male, hadn't come for almost a week.

And babies are fighting each other for food, I consider it as right thing.

Also, I have some good new after a long time.
Babies are growin up FAST!! Older one has visible feathers. And mother is not afraid as much as she was before, she now can see, that chicks are really safe here, so she hunts much often, last 4 hours they ate 3 times!! Last weekend, they ate maybe once in 3 days! I'm thinking that after few days, I will stop helping to feed them.

25 And fresh photo

Octavio

I should have been clearer in my response. I wasn't suggesting that Majo hand feed the birds, but simply suplimenting when things got tough to help them survive, like he is doing now. I agree that they shouldn't be hand fed.

Brian

majo, thanks for the update, those are the cutest little ugly chicks I have ever seen

I'm sorry guys, I didn't know the male wasn't attending the nest anymore.

majo, you are very fortunate to have kestrel nesting on your balcony! One thing I would suggest, if possible, is to make up a fake adult kestrel puppy, with beak, eyes, feathers and all. This is the way rehab centers do to feed youngs, this way the babies won't associate humans to food, this is the most dangerous thing in hand feeding. Observe the way the female feeds the babies and mimics that, the way she arrives at the nest, the angle she gives them food, everything...

Don't be surprised or sad if the younger baby don't survive though, this is common and probably even expected.

Majo; I think its great you are helping them out! I think the chicken parts would be good feed, as well as any large insects you may be able to catch. The adult female is wild and has proven she can hunt, therefore I do not think that hand feeding her will do much harm, and she can then feed the chicks. This will keep the chicks from associating you with food too much. Anyway, the chicks will need to learn to hunt from their mother when they leave the nest, and the mother will not at time teach them to somehow try and obtain food from humans. As you can see the young grow very quickly, and to sustain that growth they need a constant supply of food. The male you saw the female fight with may not have been her mate. In terms of interfering with nature, well humans have interfered mostly for the bad to a huge extent already, so a little help to one nest in Slovakia will not cause harm. When the young are old enough to fly they will leave the nest, maybe coming back to roost for a few days. But eventually they will leave for good and learn to hunt from mom.

You do a nice job handholding your shots

A bird in hand................ah never mind on that one Unbelievable, hope she does not become dependent on you, although there sure is a unique bond building here. Neat update...............

Karl

Very interesting story to follow... I think you're doing the right thing Majo, and you're lucky to have them there.
Thanks so much for posting updates and taking the time to help them.

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.

Lee

Hope it will happen in my house window too... but believe is impossible to me

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.

Wonderful shots, and keep us posted!

KESTREL WARS!

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twGvvDRK_2c

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 !

This is a good shot of a grasshopper ... and its by one of our very own.

http://www.fredmiranda.com/hosting/showphoto.php?photo=39772&cat=500

And this is a shot of a cricket.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/antifluff/33592934/

Hope this helps majo.

that is awesome! Can't believe you are holding her.

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

new day, new trouble
29 - it's raining

I have followed your journey or should I say the journey of these Kestrel from the your post since the beginning. Please continue keeping us posted.

I think the female kestral loves you! What a look on her face. That's a perfect photo!

Lee

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

Edited by Monique on Jun 14, 2008 at 09:14 AM GMT

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

Hello again,

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.

Awesome photos and story. Thanks for sharing this.

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.