Purple-crowned Fruit Doves

[Tintola]

Just a couple of shots of a little fellow on the day of fledging (7 days old) amazing, wings,big feet, the rest of the body is pin feathers and they can fly.
Bottom picture is still in the nest, they laid on the ground.
Top picture is about an hour later after leaving the 'nest' with both parents being very attentive.

[desertbirds]

How many birds fledge about a quarter the size of the parents ? Thats amazing and thanks for posting some pics.

[toothlessjaws]

wow. that it bizarre. its feathered and tiny!

[Danny]

How many birds fledge about a quarter the size of the parents ? Thats amazing and thanks for posting some pics.

Red Crested Finches do the same thing. You look at them and think "surely another 10 days in the nest would be of value".

[Tiaris]

Even Jacarinis sometimes too, but not quite to that extent. I find it amazing that they are sufficiently developed at 7 days to fly. Pigeon milk must be great stuff - especially the fruit fuelled brand. Thanks for the photo.

[jusdeb]

How cute is that ...and look at those feet

[finchbreeder]

Looks half done. Typical dove nesting effort I see. They sure don't do much in the way of effort to protect the eggs/young do they.
LML

[Myzomela]

I agree Tiaris,

I still haven't worked out how a bird eating such a low-protein diet can have young develop as rapidly as they do.

There's something we are missing here. Do fruit pigeon adults continue to produce pigeon milk for the entire rearing period? And if so, where are they getting enough protein and fatty acids from to produce this? I'm sure some smart cookie ahs worked this out. Danny???

[toothlessjaws]

How cute is that ...and look at those feet

thought the same thing! they are huge! (or at least the rest of it is tiny!)

[Danny]

I agree Tiaris,

I still haven't worked out how a bird eating such a low-protein diet can have young develop as rapidly as they do.

There's something we are missing here. Do fruit pigeon adults continue to produce pigeon milk for the entire rearing period? And if so, where are they getting enough protein and fatty acids from to produce this? I'm sure some smart cookie ahs worked this out. Danny???

I don't think anybody has looked at differences in crop milk composition between granivorous and frugivorous pigeons but the rapid growth rate/leave early thing isn't restricted to fruities - also consider terrestrials - spinifex/squatters etc. They leave very early as well. Maybe its a poor nest security thing rather than a fruit vs non fruit thing. I remember hand rearing the things with roudybush squab mix. Its based on a 32 day fledging with 4 different dilution changes as things grow. These little buggers are so fast the first dilution change works out at about 36 hours old, the second by 2.5 days and so on. By 5 days old your onto standard roudybush. Its a nightmare to manage and subsequently so easy to stuff up if you aren't aware of it. And they only sold it in 5 kg bags.