And the skirmishes that break out when adult birds think their kids need protecting.
It’s that time of year when baby birds are busting out all over Bear River MBR. When they’re very young most of them stay hidden in the vegetation but two days ago I spotted a fair number of them of various ages. Following are some of the photos I got documenting their presence. Most of them are only of documentary quality but who can resist baby birds, no matter the quality of the photos (up to a point).
An adult Pied-billed Grebe with four chicks. The water was so ‘soupy’ all five birds had difficulty swimming through it as they moved away from me, with their backs to me of course. This is as close as I came to getting a broadside view of several of them.
This photo needs some clockwise rotation. Too late for that now.
Three young Black-necked Stilts partially hidden in the vegetation. Eventually one of them…
came more out in the open.
A nearby and slightly younger American Avocet chick near the end of a wing stretch.
Both avocet parents stood guard as their offspring were foraging nearby. The adults often looked like they were sleeping but they always kept their eye on their kids.
For weeks I’ve been watching avocet and stilt nests in this area of the refuge. The nests of both species are quite close to each other, which means that there are often aggressive interactions between adult stilts and avocets (and other species too). Those skirmishes become even more frequent after their chicks hatch and begin to wander. Neither species of adult birds is comfortable with having adults of the other species close to their chicks, so noisy and aggressive warfare is often the rule rather than the exception.
Following is a case in point.
The avocet at the bottom of the frame (the male I believe) took exception when the stilt got too close to his chicks so he aggressively pursued the stilt (both birds had chicks in the area). At first the stilt flew away from the pursuing avocet but…
when the avocet gave up the chase and curled around to land next to his mate, the stilt turned around in flight and came after both avocets. Apparently turnabout is fair play.
As the stilt got closer it lowered its legs and both avocets began to…
duck in order to avoid any contact. I’m not sure how much damage those spindly legs and feet could do but the avocets clearly wanted to avoid them. From my photos I couldn’t tell for sure if there was any contact, but if there wasn’t it was very close.
Immediately after the altercation, both adult avocets walked back to keep a close eye on their youngsters.
OK, I’ll end today’s post by announcing the official winner of the refuge’s Ugliest Baby Contest.
It wasn’t even a horse race. American Coot chicks almost look like they were designed to leave the competition behind.
Here’s another one I found a little while later but baby coot #1 had to be the ultimate winner, in my opinion.
Ron
Fabulous series – thanks so much! Love the ugly cootling
Meant to write this hours ago but distractions abound this week 🙄 ….
“So ugly it’s cute!” I have a *very* soft spot for ugly ducklings, probably because I was called “4-eyes” through much of my childhood. And I grew up into a fairly decent-looking teenager (sans glasses), so there’s hope for that little coot, too! 😂
Chris, you were able to ditch the glasses but I’ve been stuck with these big ears of mine for my entire life. Do I give a sh**? Not at this point, but I did when I was a kid. Thankfully, I got over it about the time I entered high school. By then I was the only one who seemed to notice.
Lots of kids and lots of fun. Love the Stilts and their youngsters are really cute. Those Coot offspring really are interesting. Just realized that I have never seen one. Have seen a million Coots, but guess I just have never been around while their chicks were new.
Thanks, Everett. Look for them – when you see one you’ll know it!
Oh, Ron, thank you for the smiles and laughs, and to Dan Gleason for info about coots. We had the first batch of baby California Quails in our yard yesterday – six yellow and brown cotton balls zipping around their parents as they paraded across. The avocets and stilts are adorable – no wonder those mama birds were so serene in your posts of them on their nests. They knew the lovelies they were making! And the Coots! Maybe being the birdworld’s ugliest babies makes them so irascible as adults 😄
” Maybe being the birdworld’s ugliest babies makes them so irascible as adults”
Whatever the cause, the adults certainly are irascible. Thanks, Carolyn.
Awww. My stony heart is melting. My favourite by far is the ugly duckling.
Stony heart – I don’t think so, EC.
Fun photos to see. I am worried they are draining the western part of the south pond, there will be so many grebes nesting in that area. I hope the water was just lower than flood stage, but it seemed lower than the ponds normal capacity. I was hoping to go up this week but my car had other ideas. I have my dads car but don’t like to take his on rougher roads. It is older than mine but less miles by far. My car is now back today, earlier than expected but my mornings are tied up with bird releases for a few days. WRCNU is pushing to get animals in their care out their doors before the September deadline to vacate the building. I am working with passerines, weathering and suitable release locations.
Sounds like you have your hands full, April. Good luck with it all.
Delightful photos, Ron! All the chicks are adorable. I love the stilt buzzing the avocet parents. What a fun day for you I am sure!
Thanks, Melanie. And yes, it was a fun and interesting morning.
The first time I saw baby coots with their bright red heads I was very surprised. I think they are more attractive than their parents but the bright red seems so wrong for a baby. It seems like it says here I am come eat me to a predator. Any idea why this color? To attract parents for feeding?
Could be, Catherine. The mouth linings of some baby birds are very brightly colored for that very reason.
The bright color turns out to be a good survival strategy for coots. Coots have complex behaviors. Each female will lay 9–10 eggs per clutch. Prior to that, she often lays some eggs in other nests. So they are brood parasites in addition to raising their own young. The eggs are laid one day at a time and incubation begins with the first egg of the clutch. Thus they hatch over the course of 10 days. As the eggs develop in the female before being laid, the amount of red/orange pigment put into the yolk increases so the latest eggs eventually laid have the most pigment and those chicks are the brightest colored ones. The parasitic eggs hatch the least colorful chicks. All chicks are initially fed well but after the last chick hatches the parents begin to give preferential treatment to the brightest chick. Older chicks already have some advantage but parents may now peck at them or even violently shake them, preferring to feed the brightest chick. The parents now separate the clutch with the male tending half and the female the other half. Each parents will feed one or two chicks preferentially and those are the brightest. There is a high mortality rate among birds with large clutches and this is the case with coots. By tending to only the brightest chicks it helps assure that some survival will occur. Trying to feed all of those chicks would result in many being poorly fed and less fit as adults. Nature often sounds harsh to us but this helps these birds to have the most fit population to survive their other life struggles.
Amazing information about Coot nesting behavior. I had thought that most ground nesters began incubation after all eggs were laid but that would be risky, leaving the nest to forage would leave it vulnerable to egg predators. And that the youngest, smallest of any brood probably has the highest mortality rate is common in all birds that begin incubation with the first egg laid. Don’t you wonder about the reason in nature for the color differentiation in older vs younger or why the parasite chicks are the least colorful? Does the female run low on pigment? Ahhh, the mysteries of nature.
Fascinating info, Dan.
Took me a bit to find this. I remembered reading it but not who did the study. https://news.ucsc.edu/2019/12/colorful-coots.html
Here is another link providing information about this.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7035493/
Thanks for the links, Dan and April.
Wow! My question is answered. What a great resource you all are. So interesting to find out these things.
Sensational series! Thanks for sharing!!
Charlotte Norton
Thanks, Charlotte.
What a fun post to enjoy over my breakfast, Ron! You’ve taught me to appreciate the catch lights in your photographed birds’ eyes. I especially like the light in baby coot’s eyes – a wicked gleam actually. 😳😁👍🏼
Thanks, Marcia. Loved what you said about catch lights.
Thank you Ron. Photos and narrative were both interesting and fun.
Baby Coot – this year’s Halloween costume.
“this year’s Halloween costume”
Now that’s a photo I wanna see, Michael!
What a fine morning — for the photographer, for adorable chicks, and for
your ugly chick prizewinner–that last made me belly-laugh when it appeared
on screen !
“that last made me belly-laugh”
Good. Thanks, Kris.
The saying, “There’s a lid for every pot,” must be true because I find the American Coot chicks to be absolutely adorable! 😂😍 Thanks for sharing such a fun post with all these babies and their protective parents.
I wouldn’t disagree, Marty. I don’t think “ugly” and “adorable” are necessarily mutually exclusive. Think Yogi Berra for example… 🙂
What fun! “Babies” of most anything are always a treat to watch……:) That Coot certainly does “win” the contest for ugliest baby….. 😉 Catching the reflection of it REALLY makes the photo…….
“Catching the reflection of it REALLY makes the photo”
Kinda like double-ugly, eh? 🙂 Thanks, Judy.
Lucky you! Grand shots, great birds. An oh, my, legs, legs, legs!
Thanks, Sallie.
A great time of year to watch the youngsters and observe such interesting behavior.
Yup.