Hooters and chicks - 2019 edition

[IronWing]

It's been a busy weekend for baby birds in the Santa Rita Mountains.

These are Mountain Pygmy Owl chicks.

They are not happy, at all.

This is dad. He is bringing food for the chicks.

This is mom.

Mom and dad are trying to get the chicks to fledge so they come by with food and sit outside the nest with the food and call. They'll call for up to twenty minutes, trying to entice the chicks to come out. Sometimes, they will bring the food into the nest and then leave again with the food to further entice the chicks. Yesterday, when the chicks didn't come out for the food, mom and dad ate it without them. Today, dad left the lizard for the chicks so they wouldn't starve.

Edit: Forgot to add the pics of dad coming out of the hole after dropping off the lizard.

This is the Elf Owl, the smallest owl in the world. I don't know if it has chicks or not.

This is mama Gray Hawk.

She has a chick in the nest but the pics didn't turn out very well because the wind was moving the tree. There two gray hawk nests and this chick is in the other nest.

 

[IronWing]

One more pic I didn't add before because it came out a bit fuzzy. Pygmy owls have eyes on the back of their heads to ward off evil.

 

[Kyle]

Thanks for sharing - amazing pics

 

[IronWing]

Bump for adding a couple pics of dad coming out of the hole above.

 

[IronWing]

A couple of the suburb owl chicks returned to the neighborhood last night at dusk. I didn't have the camera with me so I went back tonight. The chicks are learning to hunt for themselves. You'll have to excuse the image quality; even at ISO 12800, it was too dark.

I think that the unfortunate is a collared dove. It was still alive when I took the pics though not for long.

The pygmy owls fledged over the weekend. There were four chicks in the hole. I wasn't there for it but other folks got some great pics of the fledglings.

Yesterday, I spotted a ladder-back woodpecker fledgling at a feeder in Patagonia, Arizona. He was pissed because the adult male wouldn't let him have any suet.

 

[IronWing]

I always wondered what baby ravens looked like. Now I know.

 

[IronWing]

Two days makes a lot of difference.

Fur from roadkill rabbits is in the nest.

 

[IronWing]

Three more days…

My project near the nest is over so this will be the last update for the raven nest.

 

[IronWing]

Lucifer hummingbirds, Box Canyon, Santa Rita Mountains, Arizona this morning

Mom landed at the nest for a couple seconds. Not sure if she was offering a bug or other bribe to the chicks but as soon as she left, one of the chick fired up its engines.

Said, "Later tatter" to it's sib and was gone.

Mom came back a few minutes later to hover over the remaining chick as if to ask, "Well, are you coming?" The chick hadn't fledged by the time I left but it probably will go today.

 

[IronWing]

I spotted all three owl chicks from the suburb nest last night so everyone made so far.

 

[IronWing]

California condor chick fledged earlier this week north of LA.

 

[highland145]

From a friend in OK.

 

[KMFJD]

We have two of these courting(?) in our back yard

 

[highland145]