There were six Barbets in our garden today, and all of them flocked to the guava tree, which had some fruits almost ready to pluck.
I watched them engaging different fruits. By the time I returned with the camera, one barbet had already bitten away a good portion of the fruit. Its wide open bills gives it an advantage to carve out big chunks with each attempt.
I was busy watching other barbets similarly 'attacking' other not so ripe fruits.
When I returned to the first Barbet, it had in the process of pecking the fruit dropped it. The photo below is the left over fruit, with more than half eaten in a short time.
That is when I remembered seeing a barbet chipping away a dry stem in our garden about four weeks ago. The pictures reveal as how over about four weeks, Barbets had chipped away about one foot of the stem. Also, two branches are missing.They fell off as the Barbets chipped the branches circumferentially. The other stem has a hollow in its surface, which again is the sign of the Barbets being active with their bills. It looks like that the young Barbets made their bills strong by chipping away these branches.
I found it fascinating, that birds have their training lessons to prepare them for meeting their future needs.
Anna and I do not think that we would be alert enough to pluck the guava fruits before Barbets can find them, from what we noticed this morning.
A garden is also for birds. That is some consolation!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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