This little guy was very adventurous, and started walking out onto a branch near the nest. The nest can be seen on the left. He still has some down feathers, but they are rapidly starting to fall out. He is now entering the "brancher" stage.

At this point, he took a short flight to another branch, where he stayed perched for a while. The young Merlins did these short practice flights (within the nest tree) in preparation for fledging, when they eventually flew to another tree.