What A Family!

I found this Black-naped Monarch (Hypothymis azurea) family at Kaeng Krachan National Park, in a small trail next to the second stream where I photographed the White-fronted Scops-Owls in the earlier post. There were already many birders at the nest when I first took a look of the family. I was really surprised at how tame and tolerate the parent birds were. Even with birders and bird photographers sitting and standing around the nest without any photography hide, both of them still actively came to feed the chicks. I even took some time to sit down and make few sketches of them. What a showy family!

Male Black-naped Monarch at nest with chicks

Female bird at nest

My quick sketch made while observing the nest

I guess the reason why the parent birds were so active at feeding the chicks was that they really wanted the chicks to grow up and leave the nest as soon as possible. This nest attracted a lot of attention from bird photographers as it was located in a very good location for photography. It was built on a small fork at the height of just about a metre and a half from the ground. It was well made of moss, tiny sticks, lichen and spider web. There were 3 chicks in the nest, all looked similar in size.

Male bird with a grasshopper

This time with a small cicada.

Female bird with some kind of moth

Female bird removing the chick's fecal sac

The chick while releasing the fecal sac

I heard that the chicks have successfully left the nest in just a few days after my visit. I've also uploaded some clips of the family showing parent birds while feeding the chicks and removing the chick's fecal sac. It was interesting to see such a wide variety of preys that the parents brought back for the chicks. They included different kinds of grasshoppers, moths, planthoppers and tiny cicadas. Below are some of the selections.

Male and female bird feeding the chicks

Male bird feeding an unknown black and orange insect

Male bird removing the chick's fecal sac