Chicks in a fix.

[Tofer]

Sadly two Brahminy Kite chicks fell to earth out of our palm tree yesterday but, thankfully, the nest came down with them and cushioned their fall. A third chick is still in the tree.

 

We placed the nest and chicks in a mixing tub and placed them off the ground on a scaffold, hoping to encourage them to try to fly, as at ground level yesterday they just hoped out and padded around. Also we hoped maybe the Mother would chance a visit, but she just sits in the tree above them, well aware of their predicament but does not go near.

 

Consequently we have had to assume surrogate motherhood, feeding them 3 times a day. Both were easily force fed yesterday, presumably as they were dazed. Today one has turned a bit feisty, and following a few talon scars on my hands, we had to resort to holding it down and pushing food in its mouth, which it took without appearing traumatised. The other is very placid and will allow you to open its beak and push the food in, progressing nicely to now taking food off a chopstick and swallowing unaided.

 

A new dilemma just transpired as we caught a monkey from the adjacent jungle perched on the tub which we managed to chase off before it did any damage. So it looks like I'm going to have to spend my evening building a cage around them. A shame as I was hoping to leave them to fly off at will.

 

Here's a couple of photos in their new home.

 

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Edited April 26, 2019 by Tofer

[Dumbastheycome]

Good on you !  And  good  luck  with it. These kites  are  nice to see  cruising  about. Best is the crows  all piss off and take their  racket  with  em. lol

[Tofer]

13 minutes ago, Dumbastheycome said:

Good on you !  And  good  luck  with it. These kites  are  nice to see  cruising  about. Best is the crows  all piss off and take their  racket  with  em. lol

I've generally got no problem with the birds, with the exception of one species that has a high pitched whistling chirp, and of course the cockerels that crow all night long. TIT.....

 

 

[Tofer]

59 minutes ago, Arjen said:

Once you have them start eating (even when you need some force) there is a big chance for surviving.

 

What work here is to put them in a cage without a cover.  Once they can fly, they are more or less safe. They start to fly quite easy, it seems they have more problems with landing properly.

 

About the monkey, (I know something about monkeys).

 

Be aware that it is illegal to keep monkeys in Thailand. Except when you use the monkey for collecting coconuts it is allowed to have one, ore more. The process of getting the license to keep the monkey legal is quite complicated.

 

Arjen.

Update - they are now both swallowing alone and taking food off the chopsticks only 2 days on from their trauma. One is even stealing food from the others beak.

 

We have them perched as high as we can get them in the open mixer bath, but worry about the monkeys.

 

The monkeys are wild, we do not keep them! We live near to a National Park where they roam in quite large groups, and they often stray into private property to raid banana and papaya trees.

Edited April 27, 2019 by Tofer

[cornishcarlos]

Please keep this thread going, with updates and photos...

It's a much better read than which fuel to put in a PCX ????

Hope they are progressing well...

[Happystance]

Good work! ????

[Tofer]

Sorry to have abandoned interested followers, so here goes.

 

We kept the Kite chicks in an old mixing bath with their original nest padded out with some fresh palm fronds and they seemed quite happy perched atop a scaffold. We fed them twice a day and they developed nicely, flexing their wings and hoping in and out of the tub. At nights we took them onto our bedroom balcony for safety away from monkeys and other predators looking for an easy lunch. 

 

They grew to gradually resent our presence and being fenced in at night time, a good sign they would eventually exercise their independence. 

 

Sure enough they took flight about 2 weeks ago, and we spotted them in our trees on a few occasions. The parents were happily interacting with them since they were out of our clutches.

 

Pinky (the mild mannered one) has now disappeared and it's difficult to tell if he survived or not, as we haven't seen it flying around at all. He may simply have gone off to wherever the family roost is. But we still see the parents flying around our area. The same goes for the third chick that had remained in the original tree nest, we have no sightings of that one either. Fingers crossed they have simply adopted a truely wild existence and turned their back on us.

 

Perky (the belligerent one) has made our trees its daytime home, and sits aloft screeching for food on a regular basis. Sometimes the Mother joins him with food, but it's difficult to tell if she's feeding him or baiting him to get off his lazy backside and go fishing. We put a tray of uncut fish out on the ground and he comes down to eat that and hops around the garden a bit, before returning to the trees. Then at night time he disappears, probably to the family night time roost, wherever that may be we've not established. The cheeky little devil perched on our Sala roof yesterday looking into my study and screeching at me for food. So it's getting bolder, but not to the point we are allowed anywhere near it.

 

So there lies the dilemma, do we carry on or stop feeding it in the hope it will develop its wild instincts and start hunting for its own food? 

I'll try to get some current photos of Perky when the opportunity arises.

 

Hope you enjoyed the update.

[Tofer]

Perky finally got his lazy backside off his tree perch today, and made a circuitous approach on the food tray.

 

I took a load of still shots, but unfortunately the quality is very poor on the iPad using the zoom. Since my laptop is up the creak, I cannot load pictures from my camera off the SD card, sorry...

 

Once he got settled on the food tray, I manage to get within 2m of him and took a few videos, before he decided enough was enough. He must be getting much more comfortable with us around.

 

Maybe I'll try to feed him off the glove soon. I know it's not the usual process of training Hawks, but I don't want to cage him up as they do using the traditional falconry methods. Who's to say that's the only way anyhow! Anybody got any tips?

Having said that I really don't want to encourage him away from his wild tendencies.

 

I wish I'd thought of the video earlier, there were some magnificent close in gliding action prior to feeding. Next time...

[Tofer]

Here's a few stills also.

 

 

Hope that's brightened up your afternoon folks, at Tofers take away, or claws carry out, or Perkys pecks.

Edited May 27, 2019 by Tofer

[Tofer]

Yesterday we had the royal visit from all 3 Kite chicks. Pinky and Perky and the third chick which managed to stay in the nesting tree originally, let's call him/her Pat.

 

Pinky and Perky squabbled over the food and Pat hung around on the sidelines, having been chased away by Perky. I managed to get very close to Pat and toss him a fish which he happily tucked into.

 

Today we put down 3 trays, and after a bit of squabbling, they all managed to get some food.

 

Pat appears a bit under the weather but, although we can get quite close, we cannot get hold of him to administer any medicine. We're going to town and perhaps the pet shop will have something we can put on his food.

 

A group of big black nasty crows appeared today, and after much baiting the Kites eventually saw them off.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tofer]

Sorry about the slow video uploading, I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Persevere though and you will be rewarded with some spectacular action.

[Date Masamune]

On 4/27/2019 at 11:27 AM, Arjen said:

Once you have them start eating (even when you need some force) there is a big chance for surviving.

 

What work here is to put them in a cage without a cover.  Once they can fly, they are more or less safe. They start to fly quite easy, it seems they have more problems with landing properly.

 

About the monkey, (I know something about monkeys).

 

Be aware that it is illegal to keep monkeys in Thailand. Except when you use the monkey for collecting coconuts it is allowed to have one, ore more. The process of getting the license to keep the monkey legal is quite complicated.

 

Arjen.

Since the Monkey lacks Thai nationality does it need a Work Permit?

[sammieuk1]

11 minutes ago, Date Masamune said:

Since the Monkey lacks Thai nationality does it need a Work Permit?

Not required if it wears an orange robe????

[Tofer]

The chicks continued to pester us for food on a daily basis, but one in particular, Perky, had become quite aggressive towards the others, and chased / fought them off. 

 

Their antics have provided us with much entertainment, their chases even passing through our Sala, so close we could almost reach up and touch them.

 

Perky was gorging on the food to the extent he plumped himself on the lawn to recover before eventually flying off. The others, including the odd stranger, simply swooped in snatch and grab and take away.

 

I think I've finally convinced my wife to stop feeding them as they appear to be well enough developed to fly competently and therefore hunt for themselves. It has always been my concern that they become too dependent on us for food and forgoe their natural instincts to hunt.

 

It's been very quiet these last few days, although we've had some very heavy storms and persistent torrential rain, and we've seen very little of them. I'm assuming / hoping they have finally become independent of us.

 

On that note, I will say, job done....

 

I hope you enjoyed the post and the adventures of Pinky, Perky and Pat. We're certainly very happy to have aided the survival of Pinky & Perky since their fall, and to see them gliding across the ocean, seemingly fit and healthy.