Mother shama works hard to feed her babies

At this time of year, sunrise is at around 6:00AM, but the male starts to sing at around 5:30AM. First feeding is around 6:00AM. Within first hour of feeding, the mother shama feeds her 3 chicks total 12 times with 14 crickets! That's hard work which explains why lots of of handraise babies died while in the care of human.

Part#1:


Part#2:

Update pics of the first batch 42 days old

Sad news: one baby shama die

One of the five baby shama died on Monday due to record heat of 104F or 40.5C for the last two days. This one is the smallest of those five which survive less than two day. The baby is barely 4cm long. The rest of the clutch is doing fine.

Update 04/23/09: Another baby found dead after I come home from work. This one is next to the weekest one which probably hatched on afternoon of Sunday 04/19/09. The clip shows the female discarded the dead one around 08:11AM. The first baby shama dead discarded by the male. My theory is because 5 eggs hatched in the spand of 3 days which enough size different between the first day hatch and the last day thus be older one is bigger and stronger sho they push or sit one the weeker one.

Shama eggs hatch!

On day 9th since the last egg laid from a clutch of 5, Friday 4/17 two eggs hatched in the afternoon. Another two hatched on morning of 4/18, and last egg hatched on noon of 4/19 which is eleven day of incubation.

Clip of first egg hatch and subsequence other eggs hatch. It's little fuzzy and not clear but you can kinda see the egg shell rolling around when it hatches.

Female shama pushed her mate out of the nest so she can incubate her eggs! :)

The female comes out to eat, drink, and take a bath around noon like every other day and she takes a little break from incubation job. This time, the male shama comes in the nest and incubate for the total of little over 9 min. The female can't wait any longer to incubate so she jump in the nest while the male still sitting inside and tries pushing him out. This is the 6th day of incubation period.

Is male shama incubate his eggs?

This is the question that seems no one can give a definitive answer. With the newly camera install on the second clutch, I were able to observe the male jump into the nest and incubate the eggs. Even with only few minutes long, the male shama, at least in this case, does incubate his eggs when his mate when out to eat and/or take a bath.
The clip below is only two and a half minutes long due to I cut most part of non-active clip to save time watching, but if you notice the time, the male incubates for little over 6 min long.

Total of 5 eggs on second clutch.

On April 8th 2009, total of 5 eggs were laid and begin incubated by the female. All the babies in the first clutch are still stay with their parents until they can eat by themselves. The father is the one mostly feed his babies with occasionally the mom feeds her babies when she was out to eat and bath.

Video clip female shama incubate eggs

Today, Sunday April 5, 2009, there are two eggs in the nest which the female shama laid since Saturday. So approximate 5 days when the babies left the nest, or about 17 days when the first clutch hatch, or about 28 days when the female start incubate the first clutch, the female is ready to lay the second clutch.
This clip is only 20 second long but total time incubate is approx. 20 mins.

6 days after left the nest

Update on those babies after 6 day left the nest or 18 days old after hatched.