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Sunday 12 September 2010

A Barn Swallow family (1)

Barn swallows are summer migratory birds in Hong Kong.  Every spring, they travel to Hong Kong from their homes in South Asia to raise their children. In autumn, the chicks are old enough to fly back home together with the parents. Every year, we see several swallow nests in my neighbourhood. This year, I saw a nest just below a neighbour’s first floor balcony, which was very handy for photographing.

By the time I noticed the nest, the eggs were already hatched and the little chicks must have been several days old.


They were making very loud noises whenever there was a slight movement near the nest. That is how I noticed them.  



The adult swallows fed their chicks mainly on small flies and insects. Sometimes, they brought back bigger insects, such as butterflies.

One day, a parent caught a big cicada! Of course, the cicada was too big for the little chicks to swallow. 





In the end, she (he) had to give up.

8 comments:

Dominic Gendron said...

Awseome serie, the close-ups of the parent feeding the youngs are impressive!

Phil Slade said...

Thank goodness for Swallows or we would be knee deep in insects. Great close-ups.

Ayuwat Jearwattanakanok said...

First time for me to see a swallow catching cicada. Seeing the nest of these birds is one of the ordinary scenes of summer in Japan as well :D

Life in Egypt said...

another good post. great shots thanks for sharing.

Amila Kanchana said...

How nice! You have a great wildlife blog here. Your photography is really outstanding. I'll follow you. Thanks for stopping by blog too.

Unknown said...

Fantastic shots! What an amazing sequence!

Amila Salgado said...

The chicks look as if they are doing the last bits of Nessun dorma. Cracking photography!

Friend of HK said...

Thank you very much for all your interest and comments.