My resident pair of Javan Mynas (Acridotheres javanicus) visited my garden on 9th August 2017. Tagging along was a noisy juvenile constantly begging for food. The juvenile must have fledged recently.
On 22nd August an adult entered a recently dug pit filled with fresh compost to forage. It was followed by a juvenile with its characteristic begging cries. In the pit both foraged independently although there were begging cries on and off. This could be due to the abundance of soil fauna in the compost. After a few minutes the adult quietly left the scene, leaving the juvenile alone.
Could this be one of the ways of encouraging the juvenile to be independent? The juvenile was more than 13 days into its fledging period, being first heard in my garden on 9th August.
For the next 20 minutes or so the juvenile was quietly picking up food by itself. There were no begging cries – anyway there was no adult around to respond. Then the juvenile suddenly flew off to look for the adults.
The adults were at the back of the garden, by the compost pile. The juvenile joined the adults and only then started begging loudly to be fed. They moved to the compost and after a while flew off.
YC Wee
Singapore
30th August 2017
