Purple Martin forced first flight.
While observing a local Purple Martin "condo" nest box this weekend I witnessed something for the first time. There were many young ones peeking out of the various holes waiting for the parents to return with food. On two occasions I noticed a parent approach a young one...not to feed it, but to forcibly pull it out of the nest hole:eek:. The surprised free-falling juvies had no choice but to fly and perch on the nearest pole! The parents then proceeded to feed them from there. Unfortunately no worthwhile images taken as both the sun and the wind (lack of both) were working against me.
Very cool behaviour that I thought would be interesting to share.:) I was also wondering if this was common with other cavity nesters?