The planned transition !

 

About three weeks ago the parent Barbets were getting the two fledglings to feed by themselves. Most of the feeding was by the Fledgling taking food from the parent's mouth. 

During the three weeks the two fledglings emerged as juvenile birds, flight ready and independently feeding. 

The last photo is a picture of celebration for me, as I watched the events in the feeding station almost every day, when the parent Barbets planned for the transition of the fledglings. 

The only thing the parent Barbet did in the first of the three pictures above was to show the way to peel the banana skin and start the feeding process. The four of them were in a jubilant spirit during this process! An effective parenting mission! 

Someone sent me a greeting last week saying, 'dear bird doctor...'! I confess that since 12 years Anna and I started to live in our cottage, what has been a daily event is to have the birds visit us in the morning.

The Bulbuls would call till they spot us to receive their greeting. 

I have this feeling, that birds have been protected from the technological world, where human parents got entangled with, by using the computer and mobile phone as part of parenting of their children.   

The avian style is to accompany the nestling, fledgling and a juvenile bird till they can be left on their own !

This form of accompaniment is to foster autonomy and build life skills to live independently!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)