
Recently, I was walking around the fishponds at Mauna Lani when I came to a small cafe that was closed. I walked to the back of it, hoping for views to the fishpond behind. What I found was a couple of people staring up into a tree where a lot of loud squawking was going on.
When the people moved on, I spotted the source of the noise. It was the nest of a Black-crowned Night Heron, high up in the tree, and occupied by an adult bird and two chicks. The two chicks, as might be expected, were the source of all the noise, demanding food and jabbing their dangerous-looking beaks at the parent. Eventually, the adult bird moved out of the nest to nearby branch. The chicks tried to follow, but weren’t agile enough to do so without risking falling from the tree.
I took a few photos, but the tangle of branches made it difficult to know if the birds were in shot, let alone in focus. So I was happy to get this photo, which captures something of the scene. When I saw it, for some reason the expression that popped into my head was, ‘a face only a mother could love!’
That’s a wonderful find Graham!
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I was happy to see them. Those chicks were giving the parent a hard time for a while.
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I can imagine that 😀
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That’s great Graham. So hard to get nest photos 🙂
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I was happy with it. That tree was a veritable tangle of branches.
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Gosh what a special sighting and well done on getting that shot through all the intervening twigs and branches. Those babies sure seem to demand an awful lot from the parents who must be exhausted!
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I think the parent was not so much exhausted as exasperated! When she moved out of the nest, the youngsters settled down. At that age, they are pretty much dialed in to either demanding food or being still and quiet.
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