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Ron Fredrick | profile | all galleries >> Songbirds >> Swallows >> Juvenile Barnswallows - Mom brings a bug tree view | thumbnails | slideshow

Juvenile Barnswallows - Mom brings a bug | Nesting Cliff Swallows - Masters With Mud | Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor)

Juvenile Barnswallows - Mom brings a bug

These two juvenile Barn Swallows were perched on a chain across an access road near the Lucy Evans Interpretive Center at the Palo Alto Baylands in Palo Alto, California. I captured several feeding sequences but particularly enjoy this one because the parent visits both babies in quick succession. I don't know if a bug was left with the first one at all, or the parent remembered at the last minute that it was feeding out-of-sequence, or if the first juvenile just didn't trigger the mechanism to have the parent leave the insect. But the parent went to the second bird and obviously left the prize. When the parent left the juveniles after a feeding, they would sit there calmly and wait for her return. When they spotted her heading their way, their mouths would open and the chirping would begin. Apparently a competition to look the hungriest.
All images were taken with a Canon EOS 30D using a Canon 400mm 5.6, with 400 ISO, 1/1250 at 7.1
IMG_1507-1.jpg Got it!! IMG_1509-1.jpg IMG_1510-1.jpg
IMG_1511-1.jpg Here comes lunch IMG_1513-1.jpg IMG_1514-1.jpg
IMG_1515-1.jpg IMG_1517-1.jpg