Diamond Gives 1st Feeding To Her Hatchling! 🐣 Xavier Removes The Eggshell! FalconCam Project 10.4.24

While it was still dark, Xavier was perched on the ledge and he comes over and picks up the eggshell and carries it off the nest. He will return later with prey and Di will get up and take it and begin the first feeding of her new hatchling! 🐣 The little chick falls over on its back with its tootsies in the air but manages to get back up and get several bites from Mom. Diamond does a great job giving those tiny bites. Well done!
Egg #2 is pipping and you can see its feathers sticking out of the hole in the eggshell. Maybe we will be saying another Welcome to the World today! Thank you for watching!
Video captured & edited by Lady Hawk
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1ST HATCH: Oct 4th 2024 00:24:12 🎉🎉
GENERAL INFORMATION:
This is a research project through Charles Sturt University, Orange, New South Wales Australia, studying the diet and use of a nest box of a family of peregrines living in water tower since 2007. We now have nine years' worth of diet and seven years of behaviour data The cams go right through the year and are in daily use.
HISTORY:
The birds have been observed using the tower (a working water tower) since 2007, breeding in the box since 2008, with an average of 2.8 eggs per clutch and 1.5 fledges per season.
The parents' names are Diamond (female) and Xavier (male). Diamond took over from the older Swift in 2015 and Xavier replaced Bula in 2016 (who in turn replaced our first male, Beau, in 2015). Xavier arrived just as the eggs were hatching and saved the season by providing for Diamond and her three chicks. Assuming that they were at least two years old when they arrived, Diamond is at least eleven years old and Xavier nine (in 2024).
The male is 15-20% smaller than the female, has fewer spots on the chest and has brighter yellow-orange talons and beak. The birds do not migrate and courtship rituals and some scrape (nest) building continues throughout the year, intensifying, along with food bringing by the male, in July and August.
Eggs are laid usually in late August, with chicks hatching in early October and fledging in mid-November. The youngsters often stay around as late as March being taught to hunt by their parents, and often visiting the nest in the tower, so there is much to watch even out of the main breeding season. One male juvenile stayed until August the following year when his parents blocked his entrance to the box and he took the hint.
#falconCam #OrangeCSUfalcons #OrangeAustraliaFalcons #PeregrineFalcons #CSUorangeperegrinefalcons
Courtesy of Falcon Project Orange NSW Australia. Many thanks to Cilla Kinross, principal researcher at CSU.
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