Monday, 9 February 2015

A feeding lesson

In May this year, I noticed a female Great Spotted woodpecker teaching her young ones (one male and one female) how to fetch food for themselves. While still feeding them directly, she would also gather pieces of peanut from the bird feeder and place them in a small crack between two branches in our apple tree for them to get.
Have a look at the clip below. You will also notice that she gently pecks the young birds on the head to tell them to fetch the food themselves.
You can also see one of the babies trying to eat from the bird feeder but not very successfully.

Some clips were filmed from indoors and some outdoors. The outdoor clips have slightly better image quality and you can also hear the babies being fed. They sound like a squeaky toy. The funny thing is that the adults sound just the same themselves.




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