Devoted Kingbird Parents (1 Viewer)

[SueO]

Last week a small sailboat sailed into the marina where Peregrine is moored. The sailboat came in from Tenacatita, some eighteen nautical miles north of here. The boat has a single spreader mast which means it has one horizontal bar crossing the vertical mast. On the starboard side of the spreader where it meets the mast was a nest that held three Tropical Kingbird chicks. I know this because, Pancho, the man who cares for Peregrine, showed me a video he took of the chicks while he was up the mast. He knows I'm a birder and showed me. He also told me that the parents flew along with the boat during the passage.

I don't know why the owner sailed off with a nest of newly hatched chicks in his spreader, but I will take a logical guess that it has to do with hurricane season about to start. Tenacatita is an anchorage, not a marina. Obviously, he couldn't leave the boat unattended in an anchorage. The marina here is an excellent 'hurricane hole'. The owner left for home in the US a few days after arriving here.

Pancho told me that both parents followed the boat. I kept an eye on the nest, and sure enough, two parents were present. I was worried because there is no shade where the nest is and the sun is brutal here. No doubt there was no shade when the birds built the nest, so presumably that kind of exposure is ok. After a few days, I could see the chick's heads popping up, however, I could only see two. The parents were feeding them and it seemed that even after such a harrowing start, all would be ok for the Kingbird family.

On Monday, I didn't see any activity at the nest. I thought maybe I just missed the feedings. Yesterday, there was still nothing. I couldn't see chick heads and I didn't see the parents coming and going. I didn't see them perched nearby either. I had a feeling something bad had happened. I was standing on the foredeck of Peregrine, bins up and looking at the nest when I heard a quiet greeting from the dock. I turned to see Pancho heading for the boat two slips over. I walked over and told him I hadn't seen the birds for a day and a half. He went to the boat and went up the mast. The boat is moored on the finger behind Peregrine, so I went back to the foredeck to watch. Suddenly, the two parents were flying around and calling. They landed on the rigging of the boat next to the nest. I had a brief glimmer of hope just before Pancho yelled across the narrow channel that the nest was empty.

The chicks were way too young to have fledged; and even if I was wrong about that, where were they? They would need to be taught how to fend for themselves. No, something happened to them. I think they must have been predated.

I was pretty upset last night. That this should happen after such a herculean effort by the parents to protect their chicks seemed so unfair. I know, it's nature; but damn. I felt I should write about the adversities faced by these tenacious little birds.

 

[Lisa W]

Sometimes nature can be so cruel. So sad for the parents and the chicks. I wonder what got to them, we will probably never know.

 

[SueO]

Sometimes nature can be so cruel. So sad for the parents and the chicks. I wonder what got to them, we will probably never know.

First on my suspect list would be the Ringed Kingfishers. There is a pair here that I have encountered on the point were the ocean enters the lagoon. They were very raucous while I was walking in the area. I have also heard them in the marina. There was a Great White Egret walking on the docks for several evenings and a Tricolored also. I think it would be difficult for either of them to get to the nest, given the space available, but it is possible. There was a pair of Social Flycatchers who abandoned a nest a few boats down from us, and there is also a pair of Great Kiskadees who are nesting in the hills above the marina. I think the chicks would have been too large for those birds, but I have not researched that. Maybe an owl? I did see a few references that the Tropical Kingbird has only one clutch a year. Don't know if that counts in the case of an unsuccessful brood. I wonder if they will stay here or go back to Tenacatita.