Common Flameback Series 2-Nesting birds

March 5th, 2009 - Thursday

I was in Ipoh, so not watching the nest for a day

March 6th, 2009 - Friday

Lost a day, this day I need to know the latest progress. There was no movement in the vicinity of the nest. The scene of frequent calls was no longer did not repeat. In fact, there was no traces of the Woodpecker in that area. All the same I waited. Close to an hour, there was no change of shift either. Two gardeners dropped by and chatted then one sped away on his motorbike. Just then the head of the female popped out to investigate the commotion.

At last, the incubation progressing fine. I suppose do not expect much action for the next 2 weeks.

March 7th, 2009 - Saturday

Nothing from the nest and no sight of Woodpecker around the area.

March 8th, 2009 - Sunday

I did not expect much this morning. Just making a routine morning round for fresh pointers and there was none. No sign of the bird taking a rest from incubation, nor the mate standing guard duty.

At about 6.00 pm, I made another round. This time without prompting or provocation, it was the female, once more popping her head out of the nest..

March 9th, 2009 - Monday

I went down to Sekinchang for my birding trip. No report of activities around the nest

March 10th, 2009 - Tuesday

Stopped by the nest in early morning, there were no sign of life. Later at about 10.00 am, I showed Miss Siow the location of the nest. Though not at the top of our voice, that was enough to lure the female bird to look out its nest to investigate.

March 11th, 2009 - Wednesday

As usual, I followed the path that passed by the nest. Expected, no signs of life by its mate and no showing at the opening. On the return trip, I deliberately stopped at the place to wait for Sunbirds and Iora. Stayed there for about half an hour and no showing, from inside the nest or the mate coming in to change shift.

March 12th, 2009 - Thursday

This morning, same as the other days, no signs or showing.

Later when I was birding in the Park, I could hear calls of flying Woodpecker heading towards the direction of the nest. Was it a change of shift? I wouldn't know.

I did the same routine of stopping and staying near the nest for while. Co-incidentally, another motorcycle which was not suppose to use the rubberized track passed by.

Out came the head of the male Woodpecker. So, the male do take part in incubating the eggs!

March 13th, 2009 - Friday

I stopped by as usual looking for fresh signs. there was none. A vacant opening and no head popping out.

March 14th - Saturday

The female seem to be major guardian doing the incubation. This day again I waited and confirmed by the female's head

March 15th - Sunday

Once again the female showed her head after a long while of waiting.

The male eventually flew in and did the shift change over.

The habits displayed by the male was slightly different from that of the female.

The female would normally stayed out of sight and concentrate on incubation. After long period she would popped out for fresh air or check.

The male after entering would continue to have his head out. If he entered the nest entirely, would not be for moments of more than a minute.

March 16th - Monday

I did the same routine of stopping and staying near the nest for while. Co-incidentally, another motorcycle which was not suppose to use the rubberized track passed by.

March 12th, 2009 - Thursday

This morning, same as the other days, no signs or showing.

Later when I was birding in the Park, I could hear calls of flying Woodpecker heading towards the direction of the nest. Was it a change of shift? I wouldn't know.

I did the same routine of stopping and staying near the nest for while. Co-incidentally, another motorcycle which was not suppose to use the rubberized track passed by.

Out came the head of the male Woodpecker. So, the male do take part in incubating the eggs!

March 17th - Tuesday

I did the same routine of stopping and staying near the nest for while. Co-incidentally, another motorcycle which was not suppose to use the rubberized track passed by.

March 18th - Wednesday

I did the same routine of stopping and staying near the nest for while. Co-incidentally, another motorcycle which was not suppose to use the rubberized track passed by.

March 19th - Thursday

I did the same routine of stopping and staying near the nest for while. Co-incidentally, another motorcycle which was not suppose to use the rubberized track passed by.

March 20th - Friday -Day 1

It had been days of me passing by and no sight of new development. How I wish that I knew the length and stages of incubation.

This day I saw the male dropping by. I assume that it was a change of shift duty.

The routine that I had notice was for the male to give a call before flying in, the female would vacate the nest prior to his arrival. The male would dropped by to the entrance and quickly enter the nest.

This day the action not routine. The male stayed outside the nest. Some kind of change?

More so I could hear frantic soft calls from within the nest.

I was so glad that waiting had finally come to and end. Good confirmed that the chicks hatched.

March 21st - Saturday -Day 2

Excited by Fridays discovery, I was encouraged that activities at the Woodpecker would be gaining pace.

Very obvious now that the parents were feeding the chicks.

I settled down at the place of watching, hoping that the parent would be doing a series of runs to feed the chicks regularly.

So far only the male came in with one feeding. The familiar calls from the chicks was reassuring.

I still could not understand why the feeding cycle was so restricted.

I need not wait long, the environment surrounding this nest and another nest I followed was quite different.

As the picture below showed, the nest was constantly visited by other birds.

The small branches in front of the hole made perfect landings for the birds to stand close by and peeped into the hole. Here were a pair of White-vented Mynas investigating.

The parent did nothing to react, for example - driving the Mynas away or attacking them.

I was waiting and trying to figure out assumptions. Or perhaps, the parent were not nearby, at that time may be out looking for food, totally unaware of this happening at the nest. etc

After a while of fruitless confrontation with the "opening" the Mynas gave up and left. Without wasting time the mother showed up. Yes, the parent was back.

The timing? The Mynas left because they saw the mother returning or the mother dropped by upon seeing that the nest was freed from threat. Interesting observations too.

This picture below threw all my assumptions out. The father all these while with the Mynas presence was hiding inside the nest. Now that the female was here, he showed himself for shift change-over.

One other point - previously he would fly off and leaving the vacant nest for the partner to enter. This time a physical change-over with 2 adults seen together at the nest.

This morning, another new observation.

The mother went into the nest to feed the chicks.

It was some time and after the feeding, the mother did not leave the nest.

Instead, she stood guard inside the nest.

Not really inside as she need not incubate eggs anymore. She stayed in the nest with her head looking outside most of the time.

March 22nd, 2009 - Sunday Day 3

On 2 occasions I passed by the mother was in the nest defending her territory.

In the 2 incidents, once I was unaware of the mother in the nest, went closer to check on a twig that was bothering my view. The mother darted out of the nest and landed on the next tree about 5 feet away. I back off immediately.

On the second occasion, I showed Boon Chee the mother peeping out at the nest. As we stayed too close and for too long, the bird became uneasy and in exactly the same way flew out of the hole to the next tree to continue watching us.

We left the place hastily. We did not stay long to see the male coming for a shift change over. In the previously recorded nesting, the parent were never in the nest with the chicks. They were out looking for food. With this style of staying guard, the frequency of bringing in food much reduced. In fact, not only a reduction through the fact of a single parent bringing in food, but the time lapse between feeding was reduced further by the missing parent. Wonder that would hamper the survival of chicks, their eventual size or the gestation period for fledging.

March 23rd, 2009 - Monday - Day 4

The weather was exceptionally good with clear sky and bright sunlight. I too started early reaching the nest site before 8.30 am. That should the peak of the feeding cycle which was the beginning of another day.

Instead of seeing action of the parent coming in to feed the birds, there was someone earlier than me. A lone Javan Myna, perched strategically outside the nest and peeping in. While there was no reaction from the nest, the intruder was making all kind war like gesture, nodding its head and shrieking.

After a while, the Myna retreated itself to some safe distance away. I did not see the Woodpecker mate coming in to defend the nest nor the mother guarding the nest to drive the Myna away. Instead the one in the nest just played dead not to acknowledge that the hole is an opening to a living home.

If that was the case, why was the mother's head protruded after the Myna had kept its distance? I could see that lots of observations are needed to compile a more comprehensible understanding of birds behavior and lifestyle.

March 24th, 2009 - Tuesday- Day 5

What a wet day!

It started to rain at 7.15am and did not stop until noon.

Waited for the waterlogged area in the park to drain off before I enter. That must be about 1.45 pm.

The male was seen darting away from the spot where the nest was and the usual scene greeted me. The female peeping out to check on noises.

The next discovery shocked me!

Many of the horizontal twigs that were such a hindrance to my pictures were removed. Look carefully about 3 of them appeared on this pictures.

Manually removed by hand. I remembered that the last time I checked the nest was 5.50 pm on Monday evening. The disturbances must have taken place on Tuesday morning.

Must be quite dramatic to the parent watching the chicks

Having seen the disturbed scene, this day I chose a spot double the distance away from the nest as compared to my regular stake out site. It worked, I was discounted as in safe distance away, the male came in for feeding. Perched below the nest for a good 10 minutes without making the final approach. Then flew away to a tree near to me. The female by this time have left the nest.

I spotted it among the foliages of the same tree where the male was perched.

For some time, both went on their routine, the female preening and the male pecking on the mosses on the tree trunk. Then there was a Woodpecker call. Both birds flew to the nest shrieking away. I saw a third bird and thought it was a competitor. Another careful look, it was a Starlings that had strayed too close to the nest. So, the parent do attack when the situation was conducive.

With the area of the nest devoid of other birds, he was given an all clear signal by the female and he dropped in for the second time. Looks like it was not my presence that forced the temporary postponement. Unknown and unseen by me, there were other adversaries. This time he could do the feeding peacefully and went in the nest for some maintenance work. After that he spent some time inside the nest doing guard duty.

Well, I did not follow through on that "some" time. After getting my pictures for the day's report, there wasn't a need to stress the birds further

While I was waiting for the father to feed and then doing his guard duty, I wonder about the length of his shift duty.

That was when I discovered that mother too had left the earlier tree and came close to the nest.

How cleverly she concealed herself. Perched on the same dead tree trunk about another 6 feet higher.

She did not appeared stressed at all. While I was watching, she was busy preening herself and drying feathers still moist from the morning showers.

I watched for a good 30 minutes and sensed that nothing more worthwhile reporting would be happening on this wet day.

This picture is among the last series of pictures that I took on the male.

I was waiting for 2 events to take place.

1] Whether he would be removing feces sags from the nest and then the mother would take over the shift duty.

2] Trained the trigger on my camera for that shot of him darting out from the opening.

As I mentioned in the last para, it was already a long wait. Time to go.

March 25th, 2009 - Wednesday - Day 6

Another beautiful morning of bright sunlight. Such weather promised of easy hunting and plenty of feeding sessions.

However, with some domestic chores I was delayed until 9.00 am before I could reach the nest

I was in luck as the male was doing guard duty. I am sure that the female would return sooner than if it was the male's turn.

True enough, the female returned in short time. But it remained perched on the trunk about 2 feet below the nest. The male was still not prepared to relinquish his guard duty.

A moment of distraction, the male gone and the next thing, the female rushed up to the nest.

I deliberately posted this headless female to give an impression of how fast the bird moved.

Despite of the bright environment, in the shade the camera must be shooting at 1/125 sacs. One fact was sure feeding was proceeding normally this morning.

To continue the sequence of the picture frame above. The female entered the nest through the tiny opening at break neck speed.

Here the head was all in and the tail went out of focus with the very fast movement.

Actually I would have missed these shot even though the camera was aimed at the bird. It moved that fast.

The split seconds lack of attention and the male left, the chicks on the inside knew that food was coming.

I was alerted by the calls to press the shutter switch. That was one feeding cycle for the morning

After having fed the chicks, the parent as a practice now remained inside the nest waiting for a change of shift.

It was during this time, the unwanted visitor came calling again.

With the tiny braches in front of the nest removed, the picture showed that the Myna could not get a good view of the activities inside the nest too.

By now I know that the male bird must be nearby and that both parent were not stressed by this nosy bird.

To show that feeding went very well this morning, I temporary left the area of the nest. About an hour later I returned.

Same scene. Female gone and the male had again completed another feeding cycle.

The picture showed the repeat of a similar round . The female waiting outside for the male to vacate the nest. This time without any disturbances, both birds took time to do the change-over

The last picture for me on this day.

The female had finished her feeding and doing guard duty.

Some time she did move further out in trying to peep behind the trunk.

This wooded part of the Park is the favorite to many birds with endless calls and movements..

March 26th - Thursday - Day 7

Another morning with bright sunshine. Makus called at 8.30 am informing me that the Barbet was feeding feverishly. I had a domestic chore that would delay me until 10.00 am.

Same scene. Female gone and the male had again completed another feeding cycle.

The picture showed the repeat of a similar round . The female waiting outside for the male to vacate the nest. This time without any disturbances, both birds took time to do the change-over

The last picture for me on this day.

The female had finished her feeding and doing guard duty.

Some time she did move further out in trying to peep behind the trunk.

This wooded part of the Park is the favorite to many birds with endless calls and movements..

To show that feeding went very well this morning, I temporary left the area of the nest. About an hour later I returned.

Same scene. Female gone and the male had again completed another feeding cycle.

The picture showed the repeat of a similar round . The female waiting outside for the male to vacate the nest. This time without any disturbances, both birds took time to do the change-over

March 27th - Friday - Day 8

From the car park it was my routine to stalk at the Woodpecker's nest as the first agenda. I tool the 1st round of shots for the day . Later I would return to this place for the second round. So after, the Woodpecker and the Iora nest, I met up with Makus. He was aiming for the Barbet and was on the spot fairly early and at least well before me.

We exchanged experiences on what we saw and he corrected me that the red crowned head at the Woodpecker's nest was that of the male chick. He was properly right, as this was day 13, from my previous record the chicks would be strong enough to start peeping out of the nest. That also explain, from the day before I kept seeing a red-crowned head persistently at the nest. The male would not spend that much of time seating in the nest, I thought?

There were often actions done by the birds and which I could not understand its implication. Take this day for example, the picture above showed the mother reaching for the nest. My initial assumption was that she was there for feeding session. She stopped short of going near the nest and waited for some time in that position. The partner gave a call from the foliage above and she flew off. Couldn't understand why she left without feeding. Then I again assume that was the signal for the return of the male to the nest. He did not turn up.

Short while later, the female came back and perched without feeding. Also noticed that the usual calls made by the chicks in anticipation for food was not heard.

Here is a another picture of the bird in the nest.

Yes, a clear look at the whole head.

It is a red crown without the crest yet.

March 30th - Monday - Day 11

I was away in Penang for the weekend and so no report of activities for the weekend.

A very bright Monday morning but I arrived late at 10.30 am. I did not duplicate this pictures below by copying the one on top. It depicts a same scene, set the same mood for me as well. The mother standing guard outside the nest while the chick showed his head. No feeding and no cleaning of feces. There was only one situation that I know off - to watch the feeding and gauging the development of the chicks from there. But, the male was not showing up for his roaster.

Then it happened and many of my previously unanswered queries becoming clearer

The male gave a call from above. The female rushed off. This was a fairly wooded area as I wrote before.

The birds had no problem of remaining very close by and not detected unless they wanted to be seen.

I could see the female above but not the male.

Then a juvenile macaque came close to the nest. Instantly, there were loud calls and the male came heading to chase the monkey away.

That was the time I saw both parents.

After that they too left the vicinity of the nest but remain on tree just feet away.

The pictures here showed clearly that both parent now were clearly visible.

Answers?

The parent had always stayed very close but out of sight.

Next, there would be no feeding now. Either the frequency trimmed or limited to certain feeding hours.

March 31st - Tuesday Day 12

This day there was complete silence and no head popping out of the nest to peep.

I waited but no signals and activities. After a while, the calls came from some distance off. Eventually I spotted them, pair perched rather high up and many trees away. Could they be passers by?

There they area. Against the morning skyline.

A male and female. I dismissed their action as related to the nest that I am watching.

With nothing interesting, I left the area of the nest to return latter.

At about 10.15 am. I was away from the area of the nest when I heard calls and also in close successions.

I rushed back to check the development on the nest.

There you are a male, quietly perched.

Then it flew to a higher tree.

Stayed there for half an hour. I was still pondering why was this bird acting so strange? If he wanted to play the role of a decoy for the young chick, it would be a matter of 5-10 minutes

The sad truth came after my long wait, there was another call and I looked. There were the male and female on some trees far away. Then this bird that remained dormant for along time was the chick itself. Oh! How poor my recognition of birds -the adult and infant.

Anyway, having come to understanding the fact, I made sure I get enough picture of this young chick.

Now I can tell you, the diagnostic markings of young chick are the faint reddish patches on the wings that the parent do not have.

Not forgetting a picture of the parent that gave me that secret.

So, was it only one chick hatched and fledged? Looks like as I could not see the second fledgling.

After urging from the parent, the chick finally left its precarious perch and took a long flight across to tree nearer to the Condos.

Then the parent called again.

This time the parents flew back to the trees near to the nest.

I could see the sight of 2 males. One distinctly a fledgling.

However peeping through the foliage the camera on auto mode could not perform a proper focus.

Just had one fuzzy image to record my findings.

Had the fledgling flew back so quickly to the safer haven near the nest?

Very easily I could identify that this is the fledgling and as before, it remain still on one spot. An awkward angle for my camera, but good enough for me to get pictures of him attending to his feather.

So this day, at the end of my days of waiting, I witnessed the successful fledging of a Woodpecker chick.

April 1st - Wednesday Day 13

This morning I met up with Makus and informed him of the fledging. He in turn revealed that Tan came on Tuesday's evening and counted 2 male chicks. Oooops once again I slipped. Now that made sense, the blurry picture was that of the father with the 2nd chick after the 1st chick had left for the area of the condo.

I went back to the area of the Woodpecker's nest, hoping to catch up with what I missed.

I was in luck, saw the mother in the lower storey flying in between trees.

Kept my eyes opened and almost immediately spotted the father guarding a male chick.

This one on the right. He was sun bathing.

The position he was perched gave me a good look at his plumage.

The father and son did not appeared disturbed by my presence for a good 10 minutes.

At certain times, the father [below] would be urging the youngster to inch further up.

He was doing that and stretching his wings, pretending to do some pecking at the bark.

Rather interesting watching the parent training their fledgling.

After a while the female flew in to the next tree and along with her the 2nd male chick.

The mother on the left slowly crawling up the tree trunk.

The 1st chick from the male side flew over and joined the other chick.

Now both male fledglings were on the right side of the trunk.

At one point of time, the young were moving up as well around the trunk.

This time they were moving continuously and I could not get shot with all 3 in good colors.

But eventually I managed one with the 2 chicks.

April 3rd - Friday

On Thursday morning, the calls of the young birds were heard. So was this Friday. Interesting to note that the training under the guidance of the parent were noticed for days. In the last nesting monitored, this occurrence was not observed. In fact after fledging, the 2 chicks were led far away from the area of the nest.

There were more "new" trends observed in this nesting as compared to the previous one. The location of the 2 nest was about 150 feet apart. With this type of proximity, the chances of the same pair on birds nesting on the two occasions cannot be ruled out.

I may have missed some days or perhaps the time taken to fledge varies from one nesting to another. Why? The sole record I personally made of fledging for Common Flameback was 15 days. This time -12 days recorded. As this record is only for interest, let it remains that it is fairly accurate and falling within a range and the trend of short periods.

Comparatively this watch was less interesting than the last. A very significant point was the feeding style. This time around - frequency further apart, less seen, and in fact I did not get any good shot of the feeding. The significant was that great where the main activities then was feeding. The time, the main theme was guarding the nest.

This happening against a background where the last nest was in the car park with lots of human activities. This latest nest was nicely hidden in a remote corner of the park with little or no human activities.

Another difference was that the last nesting brought out a male and a female. This time 2 males.

For my task as an observer, both the nest and the spot where I stood in the last nesting was completely in the open. The parent impending approaches and my subtle movement was all very clear and obvious. The reverse happened for the parent and myself this time around. What bothered me the most were the tiny twigs in front of the nest. They marred a perfect shot. I don't know who did it. Someone attempted to clear these tiny branches. Must be lots of commotion for the chicks and parent. Yet the fledging continued unhindered.

The young chicks were in hidden cavity, the most important exciting time was again the moments of feeding. The bits of glimpses would monitor the maturing process. Now that part was denied as I wrote earlier on feeding was hardly seen.

In the last nesting, the young and curious chicks as soon as they were strong enough would spend considerable time in peeping out of the nest. This nesting I could only see the young chick during spatters of occasions in the last couple of days.

These 2 parents though aware of my presence did not send out any frantic warning, but continued to remain close by. As a result of noting my presence, I must say that what they did not do to raise the physical caution level, they out smarted me by not permitting me to see their feeding. Sadly so but could be true.

After watching the few nesting and noting what and how the parents brought out the young, the topics of "things that bird do to ensure the continuation of their species" conjured new meaning to my interest.

Take the Woodpecker as example. These are rather noisy birds and their presence easily detected. Not really, the many times I know that they are around and very close too, on very few occasions I successfully locate them. With that introduction, The Common Flameback is just another Woodpecker, very noisy too with their pecking and calls. When it comes to caring for their fledglings, they took unnecessary risk and put in a lot of efforts in preparing them to be independent. I have a chance to note that it was nearly a week that their obvious training was in progress. After that the young chick frequently spotted within the tiny area where they were trained. Of course as I write now almost 3 weeks later, I can hardly spot a Woodpecker.

Glad to have followed through another successful fledging. Just wondering where would the next season nest would be?