“Came across a family of Olive-Winged Bulbuls (Pycnonotus plumosus) – two chicks and a female (above). I guess it must be a female who really attended to the family of two chicks with great diligence. Every 10 to 15 minutes it would fly off to gather food, usually in the form of berries from nearby plants. On returning it would not perch besides the two chicks, but on a nearby branch, thus forcing one of the chicks to fly towards her if they want to be fed. Before giving the berry to the chick the female would kind of crush it a bit to make it smaller I guess. Then when the chick flies over it would then stuff the whole berry into the chick’s opened mouth (below). It is quite fascinating to see the chick being able to swallow the berry whole without great difficulty or being choked. Also it was the bigger chick that was more aggressive in its demand for food.”
KC Tsang
20th July 2009
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