Little Grebe - Tachybaptus ruficollis
Canon 600mm f7.1 for 1/1600th @ iso400
The fifth and final egg hatched in the last 12 hours and now the parents have five hungry mouths to feed. A pattern or routine has emerged, one adult bird will sit on the nest with the majority of the young on it's back, I say majority as usually there is one hungry youngster loitering at the edge of the floating nest waiting for the other adult to return with food. Food consists of small fish, a lot of damsel flies and what appear to be leeches. At regular intervals the adult bird will simply stand up as caught in this moment and those young on the adults back are unceremoniously dumped onto the nest, and as four of them recover themselves, the adult who has been out on the pond returns with a fish which is grabbed by the youngster.
Then both adult Little Grebe will go out into the lake and catch food items for the young, and a feeding frenzy ensues. This process is repeated and repeated - along with a fair amount of rebuilding the nest in between feeding the young.
Click Here for a short video of the first chick being fed.
The fifth and final egg hatched in the last 12 hours and now the parents have five hungry mouths to feed. A pattern or routine has emerged, one adult bird will sit on the nest with the majority of the young on it's back, I say majority as usually there is one hungry youngster loitering at the edge of the floating nest waiting for the other adult to return with food. Food consists of small fish, a lot of damsel flies and what appear to be leeches. At regular intervals the adult bird will simply stand up as caught in this moment and those young on the adults back are unceremoniously dumped onto the nest, and as four of them recover themselves, the adult who has been out on the pond returns with a fish which is grabbed by the youngster.
Then both adult Little Grebe will go out into the lake and catch food items for the young, and a feeding frenzy ensues. This process is repeated and repeated - along with a fair amount of rebuilding the nest in between feeding the young.
Click Here for a short video of the first chick being fed.