A couple of days ago a great tit came with a 'new' fledgling and was feeding him in the tree - the following day there were 2 babes, one having a go at feeding itself and the other being fed. Today 2 youngsters have come alone, although I have seen an adult from time to time. The presumably 'older' of the two picked up a piece of suet off the stand and turned to his sibling and gave it to him! My daughter didn't quite catch the moment of exchange although she has shots of a second before and a second after. We checked closely and the bird offering the food was definitely a youngster - still had flange on show!!!!!!!!!!! We were 'awwwwwwwwwing' for ages.
Has anyone else seen such behaviour from siblings? If so I would love to hear about it.
Cheers Deb
http://www.flickr.com/photos/Debz_14/
hi deb,
It must have been lovely to witness such a thing. I have just seen plenty of young starlings which their parents have been feeding them with suet cake. I have a young collard dove that sits on top of my bird house from time to time too, so thats good.
Cheers, Jason
I did reply from my mob - but it doesn't seem to be here!
Yes Jason - it was fabulous - that pair are together all the time - the younger of the two is ball shaped and he/she follows his/her brother/sister around all the time. The older one had several baths in the space of a few mins and appeared to be trying to coax in his younger sibling - but to no avail! Another younger pair have appeared and they spent all their time trying to jump ontop of their dad - so funny to watch - he had the patience of a saint!
I could watch bird behaviour in the garden forever. It's amazing. I have seen sparrows doing what you describe - an older juvenile feeding a recently fledged one, and have also seen more than one male adult feeding the same baby. Starlings are comical. They screach for food from parents, get a morcel, then find a scrap of something for themselves, then start screaching again when they are clearly capable of feeding themselves!
Cheers, Linda.
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awwwwww - got sparrow babes as well, but never seen them doing that, think its soooo lovely.
We've had around 100 young starlings this year - around 80 or so that are getting their spots now, and around 20ish from a second batch with the latest being fed in the last few days - so we've had a constant stream. The funniest moment was caught by my son who noticed that one parent appeared to have four youngsters chasing him around, jabbing him with their beaks. He flew onto the garage roof and they followed him. Don't know what he was saying to them, but he had them lining up as if in the school dinner queue. Pics follow:
Priceless - as you say, it's easy to sit and watch all day - and I frequently do!