The nest was on a flame vine plant. I watched the nest
and birds everyday to witness the day of departure of the chicks. You can’t
watch it twice. Once an ashy prinia chick leaves the nest it never returns to
nestle in it anymore. It is a complete departure.
The mother has never seen the chick flying, or
even standing steadily balanced on a branch. The parent birds make a
prediction by mere intuition, and it seldom goes wrong. The little bird understands that it is
destined for the vast sky.
That day the parent birds do not bring the
worms to its nest, it just carries it and keeps calling the chick out. The
chick responds. It puts its head out a little more than usual. It places its
tiny, soft legs on the rim of the nest and stands up. Then it makes its first
hop on to the near by leaf or branch. All these happen accompanied by a lot of noise
and flutter of the parent birds. The chick has done its first move to fly out
of the nest and it has done it well. The parent birds rush to the chick with a
worm as its reward.
From now on for a few days they have to be
extremely careful and watchful about predators. The chicks are in the open;
and is vulnerable. But the chicks never return back to the nest for its
protection because of the predators. It has clearly outgrown the nest.
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Ashy Prinia chick comes out of the nest |
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Ashy Prinia chicks |
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Ashy Prinia chick comes out of the nest |
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Ashy Prinia parent bird keeps calling the chicks out
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Ashy Prinia chick |
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