The Baby Birds (Red Vented Bulbuls) Have Flown Away!

Our Baby Bulbuls

Our family feels sort of happiness and emptiness, in our heart, now. The baby Bulbuls have grown and flown away from their nest on Tuesday, the 11th Aug. '09. The above photo was the last one, we had taken on Tuesday late evening. We did not see them, the next morning. We saw only the parent birds for sometime.

This photo was taken on Sunday, two days before they left their nest:





This one was taken on Monday afternoon...the nearly fully grown birds, overflowing their nest!:





Now, comes the photos of the day, they came out of their nest - Tuesday. I was just bending down and opening the lock, in our gate in the morning. Suddenly, I heard some sound and saw the mother bird sitting on the branch of a plant, just near me (I had never seen her so close to me, till then) and chirping - maybe she was telling something. Then I just walked (we had been doing this everyday, as soon as we got up in the morning, since we saw the nest with eggs!) to their nest to peep in. It was empty! Then turned around and told my husband who had just come out, that the birds were not there. Both of us checked the plants and saw one bird, sitting on a branch, on the Rathnagandhi plant on the right side of the gate! The nest is on the left side. Turned around and saw another, sitting on the ground. I nearly stepped on the third one who was sitting on the grass (lawn). We saw the mother bird flying here and there and slowly the babies started shifting their places inside the gate, from one plant to another. It was a beautiful sight. I did minimum cooking because I was standing outside and watching the birds, most of that morning! Now, the photos:











The mother is keeping an eye on the babies. Mother or father, I don't know. I have seen both of them taking care of the babies. Both of them carry food in their mouths. One bird goes to the nest, feeds and comes out. Then the other bird, who waits, sitting on the cable wire, which runs on top of the nest, comes down and feeds the babies! I admired this nature of the birds.





At about 9 A.M., we heard some commotion outside and saw a third (stranger) bird (same bulbul). The parents were fighting with that bird. All of them ran away after a few minutes. The photo:





I did not see the baby bird, which was sitting on the lawn, when I came outside at about 11 A.M.


The two baby birds were sitting on the Rathnagandhi plant on the right side of the gate:





I noticed that the baby bird did not have the red colour under her belly, yet:





The empty nest:





The parents did not seem worried about the lost bird. They were happy feeding the two babies, which were sitting on the tree branch till that evening. We saw the them sitting on a branch of a jasmine plant, cuddled together (the first photograph) and the mother watching them. This image is still coming in my dream! Looked so helpless and tiny.





The happy family:





On Wednesday, I saw the parents sitting on the chain link at the backyard compound and chirping but did not see the baby birds. We just pray they are fine somewhere.

Have a look at the short video clip, we took on Tuesday. Just ignore the background sound please. The male voice is horrible. That is a commentary from a temple festival, near our house. Aadi maasam festival is going on.





The birds are beautiful. All of us are missing them.

We hope to see them back here, for nesting, next year!


This is the first part of the story:


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