The above feeding process of a fledgling by both Bulbul parents in our feeding station in the garden fascinated me.
The sequence started with the fledging making just audible bird calls and one of the parents arriving form the tree to the feeding table. Soon the other parent also arrived to participate in the feeding process.
The fledgling turned to both parents perched on each side to receive a mouthful of feed !
The last photo was at the endow the feeding just before they left the feeding table!
I now guess that Bulbuls practice co-parenting. I noticed such a practice a few times since we had this feeding station in our garden for five years now.
What a reinforcing message a bird family conveys at a time when human parenting is conditioned by changes in life style in the urbanised societies.
The time of feeding is an endearing time! Every time time a baby feeds on the mother's breast, the baby's eyes are fixed on mother's face which in turn creates an emotional nearness in the mother which is what is responsible for the 'let down reflux' that allows milk to flow in to a baby's mouth! Although the suckling initiates the milk flow, it is the let down reflux which sustains the flow of milk, even when the baby is weak in suckling!
It is such an endearing time, which gets displaced during the weaning season, when other food items are introduced to the baby. If it is a stranger who feeds the baby during that transition time, then the emotional link hitherto established gets estranged! All the more reason for one of the parents to be actively involved in the weaning phase of an infant's transition!
The relational dimension in human parenting is sometimes given less importance amidst the demands that come upon parents due to their domestic and professional engagements.
I have come across situations when the infants behave stressfully! We trivialise it as tantrum. Dr Benjamin Spock who popularised the approach not to give into the 'crying spells' of an infant or a toddler as they are like to be 'tantrums'. He believed too much in that thought without feeling the trigger of loss an infant or toddler feels emotionally when left alone unattended!
An attentive presence and discerning nearness of parents would be more advantageous to an infant or a toddler!
The Bulbuls family while feeding its fledgling communicates such a protective and affirmative parenting action!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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