The most fragile babies
My first introduction ever to the Paradise Flycatcher was through my ex-boss. We’d be in the middle of a discussion and he’d say “there’s the flycatcher”. At the time I had no idea what the call sounded like – and this was pre-app days. One day we went outside to find it, and a fleeting glimpse was my introduction.
Years later, and I have our own paradise flycatchers in our “garden”.
Last year we woke up one morning, to a pair of these flycatchers starting to build a nest on the knobthorn (Senegalia nigrescens) right outside our bedroom window. They finished the whole nest which took a few days, and then just like that, they disappeared. And the nest was left empty.
This being the first time for me to watch the process, I learned that both male and female are involved in the nest building. Birds are really rather remarkable with how they build and design, each species constructing their own unique nest, using mostly their beaks. It is incredible to watch. I watched in fascination as they placed the material, wove it in and around, sat inside and then kind of patted it down on the inside, obviously making the space as compact, safe and comfortable as possible for when the eggs would be laid.
Their nests are very tiny, cup-shaped and are made with twigs, and various bits of other materials, and are held together with spider web.
This was last year’s nest which then was abandoned
It was this particular nest from which the red-headed weaver in my previous post was extracting bits of spider web to add to her nest.
Anyway, this year, another pair (or the same pair, I’m not sure) built another nest, in a different knobthorn, above our pathway out the back of the garden.
And this time round looked more hopeful. The parental flycatchers were around, being very vocal, and there was rather a lot of action.
And the female was sitting in the nest this time. I kept a very firm eye on this nest, in which the female was sitting, hoping we weren’t going to have a repeat action of last year.
This time we were lucky. A few days later, we had little babies.
These babies come across as extremely fragile. There were 2 of them in the nest, they were still very naked, and VERY wobbly. I honestly don’t know how their scrawny little necks are able to hold up their heads.
Obviously mom and dad are then kept very busy finding all sorts of suitable insects to feed their growing ever-hungry babies.
The babies are not as vocal as some other bird species, they just seem to look for their parents with mouths open at the ready all the time.
I’m not sure how the feeding process works, as in order of which baby gets fed first (or next), as it seemed pretty random to me, but this was my first time to observe the cycle, so as time goes by I’m sure I’ll learn more.
It does come across (from me putting myself in the shoes of the babies) as such a desperate struggle to be the first to be fed.
On the particular day I was taking photos, I left my camera on the tripod, focused on the nest, and while taking the pics, I was lucky enough to witness the flycatcher equivalent of nappy changing.
The one little chic was facing downward, butt in the air and a white roundish sac started appearing. When this sac was almost out, the mother then removed it with her beak, and flew off.
The nest is very tiny, and obviously if the chics do their business in the nest, this would not be very hygienic, so waste matter is disposed of via a faecal sac, which the parent then disposes of.
I wished I’d been taking a video, rather than a series of photos, but the sequence is below.
It’s not really something you’d readily see I don’t think, unless you’re specifically watching the birds for a while, so I was quite chuffed with this lucky observation.
As I’ve said, the babies appear so fragile, it’s rather stressful being a “surrogate” human mother!
The one evening we had very strong wind and some rain. I was super stressed about the babies, so I went out to check on them, and there was mom, being very good, and sitting on top of them in the nest. After that, I could breath easier!
They develop quicker than you would think, which makes sense in the greater scheme of things I suppose.
I did leave it a few days before taking some more pictures, and was very surprised at how much they’d grown. They now looked far more like baby birds, with proper little feathers and everything. Their little necks were still very scrawny, but at least they weren’t flopping their heads around quite as much.
The weekend came, and I was feeling happy that I had some time to spend taking some more pictures.
But when I looked at the nest – no babies.
Imagine my horror. Then I heard some very persistent cheeping and saw the parents flying around a different tree, adjacent to the knobthorn. And I realised the babies had fledged. The time from birth to fledging took roughly just over a week!
It took me a while to find the baby in the tree, and I only managed to get a few “decent” shots.
I only saw the one baby, although I remain hopeful the other one was in a different tree and that both our babies made it safely out into the big world and we will see the paradise flycatchers again next year, same time.
