ML232693681

Age and sex

Adult Male - 1

Tags

Nest

Media notes

Female is in the cavity with the nestlings; male is attending the nest.

Observation details

Found an active nest in a cavity ~3m above ground level in a large Mexican blue oak, located where a branch broke off long ago. Both adults were actively tending to the nest, which contained at least 2 nestlings. For most of the time I watched 1 adult (presumed to be the female based on existing literature) was sitting on the nest while the other was actively foraging and bringing prey deliveries to the nest. The provisioning parent (presumably the male) would sing softly when it got close to the nest, flitting from rock to rock with the food item, before flying to the nest to deliver the food. After 10-15 minutes or watching and 3-4 feeding visits, the parent that had been sitting on the nest emerged and exited with a fecal sac. One of the parents returned and settled into the nest again around 10 minutes later. According to Birds of the World: "Nests in rock caverns, crevices, cliffs, or banks." I've never heard of the species nesting in a tree cavity, so this must be quite rare.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 7D Mark II

Lens

EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM

ISO

1000

Focal length

400 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/7.1

Shutter speed

1/400 sec

Dimensions

1800 pixels x 1200 pixels

Original file size

580.16 KB