This is the second in a series of three postings on the Tree Swallow. It is concerned with parents feeding their chicks in the nest. The first posting was about flying, and the last posting will be about feathers.
I watched the Tree Swallow’s cavity nest while parents flew in and out for about a week, at which time the nestlings fledged. During the early part of the week, the chicks were in the nest and the parents had to climb in to deliver the food that they had caught on the wing. Chicks were fed insects by both parents every 10 or 20 minutes. Increasingly, toward the end, the chicks looked out of the nest and begged. This picture was early on.
Some of the trips into the nest cavity had the objective of removing the faecal sac, a wrapper containing the chick’s excrement. This keeps excrement out of the nest, and the parent delivers it far off before dropping it to prevent predators from finding the nest.
During the final days in the nest cavity, the chick is full size, but looks larger than its parents because its feathers are fresh. The parent looks as though it is delivering a wasp.
And the wasp is stuffed into the chick’s mouth.
This looks to be a mayfly being delivered.
The mayfly is stuffed into the chick’s mouth. (Mayflies are common in all warm months.)
Bird parents surely work hard to forage for and deliver their younguns’ nourishment!
I can’t believe how HUGE the chick looks!