Feeding the family
Being a baby bird means knowing when to keep your mouth open. Many have exaggerated gapes, decorated in bright colours to encourage a response from their parents.
“Feed me!”
Their gape is often joined by insistent cheeping. Here’s a fresh young Wren just out of this year’s nest. It still has traces of a bright yellow gape on the sides of its mouth. I enjoy just how disapproving Wrens look with their downturned mouths.
This one is practising its best disapproving look:
Their wide stance and erect tail are characteristic features:
So is a bit of flicking and bobbing:
They are incredibly hardy birds. Here’s my story of a severely injured Wren which continued to feed its family in my garden:
Here’s what looks like a parent bird:
There are constant contact calls between the family, deep in the undergrowth. I wade through the brambles and nettles up to my armpits to get a little closer. There:
Then there they are together. “Feed me!”
The parent has that “Oh no, it’s half-term”, look.
“Feed me!”
I’m exhausted just watching them.