Hoopoe chicks in our house wall

chrismahon

chrismahon

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Following on from comments on the previous thread. The Hoopoe nest in our wall contains two chicks at the moment. At 20 days old we thought, when the following video was made. Only the larger one is seen. The less developed chick, perhaps 3 or 4 days behind, only gets to eat when its sibling is full and rarely makes an appearance. So whether it ends up being abandoned when the larger one fledges we don't know. We'll find out in a few days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP29sZZifNg

The parents are foraging from dawn until dusk. The entrance to the nest is very small. Will the chick be too fat to get out?
 
I saw your post Chris, thought great, clicked the link and then of course I remembered that youtube is banned over here just as the message informing me it was unavailable popped up. Will have to take a look at it when I pay a brief visit back to the UK in a few weeks, hopefully you may even have footage of them flying the nest by then.
 
The beak is about half full size at the moment Marigold. The largest chick should fledge in a few days and I'm hoping to film the parents with it on the lawn. This time the definition will be better -the film above was shot through the shed window at a very acute angle so the glass caused a lot of distortion.

Didn't realise YouTube was banned in Turkey Dinosaw. Perhaps you will see a bit more of them in the UK then, but they are very shy and difficult to get near to. So once again I will be filming at maximum zoom. Fortunately the camera has an image stabilising function. Not always a good feature because it makes panning very jumpy, but I haven't yet worked out how to switch it off.
 
Any chance of a photo, Chris? I can't access youtube either (probably because our broadband is sooo s l o w . . . )

Thanks.
 
That's amazing Chris - I don't know why you're apologising about the distortion. I do hope the smaller chick isn't abandoned.
 
I hope it isn't abandoned either Margaid. Feeding it won't be the problem. Teaching it to dig grubs out of the lawn though is a different matter!

Haven't got any photos Icemaiden. Every time I pressed the shutter it had gone by the time the camera woke up. That's why I got the video camera out.
 
Bit of drama this morning. No sign of the parents and the smaller chick was hanging out of the nest looking anxious and tired. Great relief when they turned up and fed it at 10.00am. It appears that perhaps the larger chick fledged this morning and was being supervised by the parents earlier. I expected one to stay with the fledgeling and one to keep feeding the chick, but both parents are feeding the chick in the nest. So perhaps they have left the other to fend for itself already and there won't be a follow-up video of the happy family on the lawn?
 
Well I didn't manage 24 hour surveillance Dinosaw, but I have spent rather a lot of time observing them. Cleaned the shed windows as well. The little chick got very confused when two sparrows decided to build a nest in the same hole. Parents still came infrequently and flew down to the valley after every visit, which is where (I presume) the first chick is. They always turned up late and in retrospect I think it was to encourage the second chick to fledge. It was a great privilege to witness the second chick fledge this morning. After just a single feed from a parent it was called. The chick pulled its legs up to the front of the hole and threw itself into the air. The first wing flaps were a bit unsteady, which isn't surprising as that's the first time they have been used. The nest is far too small to allow the wings to open for any kind of practicing beforehand. I still hope to see them on the lawn, but with the neighbour's two cats ever present I doubt the parents will risk it.
 
Fantastic!, given the chances of missing it happening you have been very lucky to catch it. Imagine how that chick was feeling as it threw itself out of the nest.
 
Just seen the video Chris after the ban on you tube was finally lifted after 67 days. Nice vid, the parents literally did pay flying visits. That's some field of sunflowers on your other vid too.
 
The parent visit section was slowed down 50%, so they flew in even faster than it appears Dinosaw.

They alternate the crops as you would expect, so about 25% of the rotated fields are sunflowers any year. Last year they were within 20 yards of the kitchen window in a field of about 20 acres. This year they are on the opposite side of the valley. Maize fields are permanent and heavily fertilised, as are vineyards unless they are Bio (organic). In fact there is a big debate going on here about the heavy use of pesticides on non-Bio vineyards as they are polluting the rivers.
 
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