White-rumped shama chicks of 2010 season

Both of them is almost or just finish their first molt

Male 6 months old

Female, also around 6 months old

Another breeding season is end. Birds are molting...

I think the breeding season here in the US is ended already or about to end in just few more weeks.  One of the adult male shama is in the molting process.  The other shama pairs are still singing with no sign of molting yet.  One pair seems to still incubate some eggs.  Most of the chicks born this year is in the molting process right now.

Male #1

Female #1

Female #2

Male #2

Almost 2 months old chick

Dedication to all the female Shama Thrush. They do a super job to raise their youngs!

Dark color female H6N2 (used to be H32N2):  have 2 young chicks on 2nd clutch.

Female H2N1:

Female H4N1:

28 days old

Shama chicks

3 chicks from second clutch of older pair:

 One chick from the first clutch of younger pair and his father:
        After enjoy a bath

Papa feeds his chick

In previous post, mama bird feeds her chicks. In this post, we can see that papa bird (H1N1) also feeds his chick. From what I observed though my birds, mama bird feed her chicks mostly while the chicks still in the nest (from hatch until about 12 days or so), while papa bird starts to feed his chicks more frequently after the chicks left the nest. The role of mama in feeding her chicks after they left the nest still play an important factor to keep chicks healthy.

1 of 4 series

2 of 4 series

3 of 4 series

4 of 4 series

Mama feeds her chicks

The superworm is little too big for 13 days old chick so mama has to try to feed her chick a couple times before the chick can get a hold of the superworm and eat it.

(Please click on the pictures to see bigger pic)

First chick of the H1N1 and H4N1 pair

Only after eleven days staying in the nest, this chick emerges.  It's a male and quite handsome :)  Hope he will grow up to become a great bird with long tail and sing well.

5 1/2 weeks old chicks

These two chicks are 1st clutch of 2010 season from H3N1 and H2N1 parents. By now, they are almost 6 weeks old and can eat/drink on their own. Actually around 3 to 4 weeks old, they begin to eat on their own thou they still beg for food from the parents if given the chance. Seems that the female has little darker color compare to normal female. The same parents produced at least one dark color female in last year which is the female H32N2 that I currently try to breed with H5N1 male.