Australian Kestrel Chick

[John Cooper]

Nothing much as a photo but had a bit of a story behind it.

One of the parent birds had just come to the nest-hollow with a plucked starling to offer the 4 chicks nestled in this horizontal tree-hollow.

I was amazed to witness this chick sieze a complete wing and swallowed it whole! However it was a matter of 'biting-off-more-than-you-can-chew' as the wing lodged half-way down its gullet with the wing-tip feathers protruding from its mouth.

It remained like this for 10-15 mins until one of the parents returned and proceeded to extract the offending morsel. (The beak of a second chick can be seen at left).

EOS 5, EF100-300 F5.6L, ISO 100, 1/200 sec F11, natural back-lighting with fill-flash, Hide on 25 foot tower, tripod.

[Vivaldo Damilano]

Amazing sighting and story John. How they swallow a whole wing is mind blowing TFS.

[dankearl]

Great close up of this chick and nice story.
The DOF and the setting is superb.
One of your best for me.

[arash_hazeghi]

great to have a view of the nest, and the chicks! I wonder if you could have been lower to be eye level with the chick!

[Stu Bowie]

Hi John, great story, and glad parent saved the day - its a wonder he could still breathe, as we as humans panic when we choke. Thanks for pointing out the other beak. If I had seen it without your introduction, I may not have figured out what it was.

[Shawn Zierman]

Awesome text/story to go along with the image, which is striking in and of itself.
I find the orientation of this cavity fascinating, as so many cavity nest photographs,
in fact most photographs I've seen have a vertical orientation.
Very cool image sir.

[John Cooper]

Awesome text/story to go along with the image, which is striking in and of itself.
I find the orientation of this cavity fascinating, as so many cavity nest photographs,
in fact most photographs I've seen have a vertical orientation.
Very cool image sir.

Thanks Shawn for your comments - yes this was an unusal nest hollow as all others that I've seen were in vertical tree-hollows.

[Karl Egressy]

Great store and a very nice omage, John.

[Marina Scarr]

Terrific story here and capture to go with it, John. As we both know, not an easy species to photograph at the nest cavity. I really like the other chick's bill peaking into the photo. It adds to the story.