Pied Triller -Nesting

Nesting series -

Pied Triller

Pied Thriller is a fairly common bird in our open park, a couple of times seen in my garden. This bird do not have large population in Petaling Jaya area, is not that easy to spot. Most times would be in the upper storey or canopy area. In fact I did not have good pictures of them as they were always that high up or far from me. Imagine to my delight I was told that a new was found in the Rimba. This time the nest was not on the upper storey but in the middle storey of a low tree.

As an added bonus, when I saw the nest, I estimated it to be hardly 12 feet above the ground. Just adjacent to the area of the nesting, there was a small mould of earth raising our the spot where we could watch the nest another 3 feet. Bad though a loose twig in front of the nest broke the perfect view. Those who were present were obliged not to tamper with another matters to disturb the nest.

The birds allowed us to stand on this mould of earth and that close to this nest, which was only 10 feet away. Hence plenty of opportunity for the photographs to get very good pictures. What a situation? No elaborate preparations and little precaution to follow.

May 24th, 2007 - Thursday Day 1 Hatching

There was no need to hunt for the Pied Triller. The parents would just hand around the nest area. An example here where I was happy to get a clean shot of the male bird. Just stood there and not in a hurry to go anywhere but keeping the female company.

The Rimba Park is a small enclave between some condos and the KLGCC -a golf course.

This pictures portrays an urban scene where the condo is the background.

In reality, the park was well forested. This part of the park, the ornamental tree were low 20 feet tall and planted sparsely.

Here is the picture of the female sitting in the nest. A very neat cup, supported by the "Y" of the branches mid way to the fringes of the tree.

The nest about 3inches in diameter, could hardly accommodate half the body size of the adult birds, with the breast and the tail extending beyond the ambit of the nest.

This was my first day watching the nest. Quite obvious the nesting was still in its hatching stage.

The parent spent considerable time and attention getting the eggs to the next stage.

No one could tell me when the hatching was first noted and for convenient of counting, I termed these pictures as Day 1 of my observations

There was not much activities noted for the day, giving me ample chance to give a clearer illustration and pointers to the environment around the nest. the picture above showed the male seating on the nest. Nice to know that chores were shared and that each partner taking turns, but both would be around the nest all the time.

May 25th, 2007 - Friday Day 2 Hatching

That was a very satisfying as well rewarding 1st day, also knowing that I had not missed the boat when the nesting was till in its hatching stage.

I had lots of pictures made on the adults to fill up my image bank as far as Triller was concerned.

This morning was no different. the adults appeared on various other branches offering more opportunity to make unlimited amount of pictures..

For the first day, I posted pictures of the male watching and the female seating on the nest. As a variation, this second day, I reversed the order.

The female watching on the outside and the male taking his turn on the nest.

It may bore readers of the page when I keep commenting on the same type of scene.

That's was also the kind of feelings we get seating and waiting. Imagine that this was only the second day.

After the novelty of getting good pictures on the first day, the excitement got extended to the second day when the opportunities showed over and over again.

Actually, the nesting process reminded us of the tedious and laboring time in bringing the young into this world.

All of us there did feel bored but more excited about sharing this wonderful process of seeing more life coming into this world. Here, with all the time on hand, getting more details on the female in images.

June 1st, 2007 - Friday Day 1 Chicks

Very quickly, 5 days passed without me visiting the nesting site.

When I dig into my archive of photographs, I was surprised to see that the nest set of pictures I had were those showing the chicks in a well developed stage.

I must have missed the earlier days when the eyes of the chicks were closed.

Equally shocking was seeing the mother bringing in food for the young chicks. The size of food brought in! Here the caterpillar shown in the picture above, was really out of proportion when compared with the questionable capabilities of the newly borne babies to handle

We were standing so close that I got this good look at the new chick. So much of catching up that I had to do. Doesn't look like a new born to me.

Once again another load of food, judging from the size of caterpillars chosen, there must be an abundance of these food at this time of the year, favoring the nesting season. Next, the rate and the size of food served, I could see that the chicks would grow at an astronomical rate.

This few picture supporting the date of June 1st, was taken on the same date. Many taken in the morning session while others in the late afternoon. Looking at this particular picture above, the looks of these 2 chicks when compared to those shown on the other pictures, I can't help feeling that the chicks are maturing by the minute. Well, the downs on their head is the only way to judge I suppose.

Another load of food. Both parents were seen doing that - non stop scuttle of bringing in food, the whole days long.

There were some brief moments where the adults did stay with the chicks for minutes after feeding. The temporary satisfied chicks

With 2 large chicks inside a small swallow nest, the size of their bodies raised above the swallow confine. The tiny nest was only good for holding the eggs

Right from this Day 1, I could see that the cup shape nest was good as a platform for them.

With this picture of their side view, I notice that the base of the wing feathers were already on the formation stage

June 2nd, 2007 - Saturday - Day 2 Chicks

On this second day of watching the chicks, the scenes repeated.

I picked out a more unusual picture to illustrate. Here the chicks were waiting for feeding time.

With half closed eyes and flimsy layer of downs on the head, they appeared newly born. Quite contrary of the impression I had after looking at the first day's pictures.

Good that I had my pictures properly dated. The new born chicks at different postures and lightings projected a much misleading image.

June 3rd, 2007 - Sunday Day 3 Chicks

Again, getting pictures of the adult was so easy. They just perched there waiting all the time.

This shot I combined the chance of picture taking with recording the type and size of food that the parents were bringing in.

This morning, the size of the caterpillar looked more sanely and palatable.

Picture below - Just gauge the age of the chick, if you can make the profile of the nest as well? They appeared so well developed within a short time. I don't see that much of fluffy downs! In fact, the stuff on their breast looks more like the feathers were in the process of sprouting out.

The picture above were taken with lights reflected from the breast, one whole whitish patch. But when the lightings was conducive, streaks and spots could be detected on the breast of one chick.

Below! - There goes one more satisfying shot, with details of how feeding was done.

I end this day of pictorial record of Day 3 with another shot similar to that of the opening

The father standing watch.

This occurred when the father had finished feeding, or when the mother was going in for feeding.

Unlike other birds where the adults rushed off from the scene of feeding, Triller stayed on to watch

June 4th, 2007 - Monday Day 4 Chicks

The write up for this days would be the same as yesterday. I could not detect any action that was not seen earlier. So the pictures I have chosen for this day would be those showing the habits of the chicks in meal time. They lined themselves up. I too was guessing, when ever the food was brought in by different parent, the food will go to which chick this time around. There must be an indication or system followed

Unless I was prepared with a score board, trying to record mentally and hoping to get an understanding was not easy. This was my first encounter with this bird as well.

June 5th, 2007 - Tuesday Day 5 Chicks

Just 4 days later, I recorded the same scene as in Day 1. Look at the feathers on the wing! Very significantly different

Pictures are the best illustration to measure the rate of maturity. Amazing I put it.

All these as a results of the hard work thrown in by the parent.

The digestive system of the chicks and converting the nutrition into physical growth.

It was so rewarding for myself, making record of the feeding machines and rapidly maturing chicks.

See, not a day passed that I could not get pictures of food coming and below, an endless supply of good pictures of the parent feeding the babies.