Punk babies

The babies started screaming as Mom crept closer to the hole.

Feeding was quick. The babies were screaming at her.

Mom squeezed her way in and was cleaning out the nest. She took off with something in her beak.

“Wait, come back. We’re still hungry.”  There were 2 babies in the nest.

Twenty minutes later Dad comes to feed them (you can tell the males by the red stripe across the chin just under their beak. The females don’t have this stripe.).

These pileated woodpecker parents were busy with 2 little mouths to feed. The light was bad from the boardwalk so it was a challenge to get decent pictures. These were all taken with my 300mm lens and extremely cropped up. They are animated little birds, almost grown up.

Linking to Wednesday Around the World.

The clown woodpecker family

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The babies were poking their heads out looking for Mom to bring food. There were 3 babies in the nest but only 2 could poke their heads out a time since they have gotten so big.  The babies started getting excited and the Mom flew in to feed them.  A few minutes later Mom took off.

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 Another 15 minutes went by and we heard both parents yelling as they landed on a tree near the nest. I wonder if they were arguing who has to feed them next. The male is on the left with the red stripe on his cheek.

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After a few minutes, Dad landed and fed the babies for a few minutes.

The very famous pileated woodpecker family at Circle B Bar Reserve had a small crowd early on a Sunday morning. Everyone was very quiet waiting for the parents to come and feed the babies. I think everyone was half asleep. The parents were very busy coming back and forth feeding 3 mouths. They stopped coming mid-morning. I heard they take a break until late afternoon. A few days after I was there, I heard the babies were already flying. All of the above were extremely cropped.

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