Rare behaviour: Red Billed Blue Magpie couple at their nest!
- 5 years ago
One flap of the wings and ALL the four chicks wake up in unison! This is rare behaviour having been documented on HDCAM with a HJ40 lens, in the Himalayan foothills...
Strange behaviour! Why is one Magpie parent flapping its wings in this fashion? It clearly wants to elicit a certain response from the chicks. But what? It seems to have woken all four chicks up, on cue, but was that the only response the parent expected? On exiting from the nest as well, the parent elicits the same response from the chicks. They rise to welcome another feed, but actually the parent is flying away... The chicks are blind as yet - their eyes have not opened, so they wait for such cues to respond.
Meanwhile, the other parent digs below the chicks to encourage them to expel a faecal globule which the parent then carries away to deposit in a far-away location.
Hear the Common Hawk Cuckoo or Brainfever bird calling in the background...
This footage is part of the professionally-shot broadcast stock footage archive of Wilderness Films India Ltd., the largest collection of imagery from South Asia. The Wilderness Films India collection comprises of thousands of hours of high quality broadcast imagery, mostly shot on HDCAM 1080i High Definition, HDV and XDCAM. Write to us for licensing this footage on a broadcast format, for use in your production! We are happy to be commissioned to film for you or else provide you with broadcast crewing and production solutions across South Asia. We pride ourselves in bringing the best of India and South Asia to the world... Reach us at wfi @ vsnl.com and admin@wildfilmsindia.com
Strange behaviour! Why is one Magpie parent flapping its wings in this fashion? It clearly wants to elicit a certain response from the chicks. But what? It seems to have woken all four chicks up, on cue, but was that the only response the parent expected? On exiting from the nest as well, the parent elicits the same response from the chicks. They rise to welcome another feed, but actually the parent is flying away... The chicks are blind as yet - their eyes have not opened, so they wait for such cues to respond.
Meanwhile, the other parent digs below the chicks to encourage them to expel a faecal globule which the parent then carries away to deposit in a far-away location.
Hear the Common Hawk Cuckoo or Brainfever bird calling in the background...
This footage is part of the professionally-shot broadcast stock footage archive of Wilderness Films India Ltd., the largest collection of imagery from South Asia. The Wilderness Films India collection comprises of thousands of hours of high quality broadcast imagery, mostly shot on HDCAM 1080i High Definition, HDV and XDCAM. Write to us for licensing this footage on a broadcast format, for use in your production! We are happy to be commissioned to film for you or else provide you with broadcast crewing and production solutions across South Asia. We pride ourselves in bringing the best of India and South Asia to the world... Reach us at wfi @ vsnl.com and admin@wildfilmsindia.com