Two crow pheasants were keeping a watch over their fledgling in the nest on top of a palm tree for three weeks now in our garden. The adult birds took turns to come and feed and covered the chick with their feathers during heavy rain fall.
Yesterday I noticed that the young bird moved form its nest to the nutmeg tree close by and the adult bird kept coming to feed the young bird.
When I went out to look for the young bird after the rain, it had moved away from that site. I looked around, but could not find the adults or the young bird.
I was able to track the adult bird behaviour of crow pheasants for the last three weeks during which I noticed that both adults carried on their domestic duties admirably. When the adult bird comes with food to feed the chick, it would stay on till the other adult bird comes with another mouthful of feed. One of them stayed watching over the young bird.
I found it strange to miss them from our garden since yesterday. The adult birds normally moved about in our front garden and they unlike the other birds were more on the ground than on trees.
Parenting has different patterns among birds. It was the first time I was able to have a closer view of the parenting habits of a cow pheasant family.
Usually the crow pheasants lay more than one egg. It seems that there was only one offspring for this pair of crow pheasants.
To watch a new life emerge and the family continues its heritage was a delightful experience.
The diligent attention, the adults birds offered to take care of the young bird, was a moving demonstration of parenting instinct!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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