RAISING A FAMILY IS NOT EASY.......

These 2 Red Vented Bulbuls must have decided on having a family sometime in January 2013 and here is their story......

Red-vented bulbuls feed on fruits, petals of flowers,nectar, insects and occasionally geckos.
Red-vented bulbuls build their nests in bushes at a height of around 2–3 m (7–10 ft; two or three eggs is a typical clutch. Nests are occasionally built inside houses or in a hole in a mud bank.
They breed from June to September. The eggs are pale-pinkish with spots of darker red more dense at the broad end.They are capable of having multiple clutches in a year. Nests are small flat cups made of small twigs but sometimes making use of metal wires. The eggs hatch after about 14 days.Both parents feed the chicks and on feeding trips wait for the young to excrete, swallowing the faecal sacs produced.

----Selecting a place took some doing.

Finaly the place is selected and happened to be in our garden in Nugegoda.

............................................Building the nest---

Eggs were laid.

----Incubating the eggs...

The chicks were out in early February.

Watching from a distance and keeping alert.

Bringing food--

Feeding the young right through the day tirelessly.

Protecting from rain---

----when threatened

----And in the night..

Taking turns in bringing food...

Yes, there were 3 chicks..

On the 12th afternoon I got a call from home saying that 2 Greater Coucals were attacking the chicks.Initially they had hung clothes to distract and used a broom to chase them....

 ...When that had not worked, they had removed the nest from the tree and had put at the entrance of the  garage and I also went and we started to move it slowly towards the cabinet at the end of the garage .At one point I hastily took the nest and straight away put it inside the cabinet and may be the mother could not find the chicks and suddenly sprawlled on the ground and meuwed like a cat for over a minute. This realy moved us as it was again proved how the young is dear to the parents whether they are animals or otherwise.

 Again we moved them slowly and both adults came most of the time.

 From the first shelf .....

 we moved to the top one but  even after several visits the adults were  a little confused...

 so we moved the nest to the 2nd one and the adults came with heavy meals for the young.

 After around 5  in the evening no one came to stay with the chicks in the night for the first time.So we closed the door with a small opening and tied  with a string around the locks so that a cat or any predator will not be able to open. I got up at 5.15 am the following morning and waited.at 6.10 the 2 adults came to a tree near the house but did not come in. I had to put the vehicle out from the garage and then they started coming with the food.At last the chicks have opened their eyes. I HOPE THAT THEIR GROWTH rate will fast track and survive to fly.

13TH FEBRUARY..WITH EYES JUST OPENED.

Action on the 16TH SATURDAY

this was around 4.30 pm on Saturday and we presumed that the rate the young were getting versatile, that they may leave the nest the following day.

AN unexpected twist in the tale..... All of us left home around 4.35pm except for Amma and around 5 15pm got a call that a Rat Snake had crept inside the cabinet and She had called the neighbours for help promting us to rush back. When we arrived ,we found out that she was not witness to the ordeal but had seen the snake and 2 birds out of the nest including the weakest. The stronger one flew out to the mesh above and encouraged by the parents flew  with the parents just before dark after trying for more than half an hour. Though the fate of the 3rd one was not known we optimistically assumed that being one of the strongest , could have survived and may have flown to saftety at the start of the snake's attack.

We  put the weaker one into a box and kept overnight.

At 5.15 am the next day we kept him inside the cabinet again and waited for the usual time the parents used to come hoping and hoping...

At the usual time the parents came on to the gate but no where near the cabinet and went away after about 10 minutes .We kept the chick in the garden but to no avail....

This left us with no choice but to try feeding it with a boiled egg but though it got used to me would not open the beak.

After 3 hous of trying the chick started calling out regularly and that gave me an idea. I took it outside and held him while it called when the sound of other birds were heard. The luck was on my side as after a while the calls were answered by the parents and they came  much to our relief.After I put it on the ground with the parents getting re-united the chick flew to a small plant and for 4 hours or so the feeding began.

And the chick started relaxing and streaching the muscles in the wings regularly.

At 2.30 or so finaly it was able to fly to a mango tree next door ......

And then  it was gone.We were relieved  and happy that our efforts might have helped at least the  2 chicks to defy the actions of nature to live at least one more day or may  live long to make the life cycle work again.........