Warou nestlings

What's this? Flowers? A strange new orchid?

Nope! It's a shot of warou (welcome swallow) nestlings begging for food from a parent circling nearby. The nest is in the darkest corner of the shady side of the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary Visitor Centre. It's dark enough that you'd need to turn on a light or use a torch to read, even at midday on a sunny day. I darkened the background for the above shot. All the shots in this post are done at high ISO and a lower shutter speed than I would normally use, with aperture wide open of course.

To record a feeding visit, I was stationed about 1-2m from the nest in a doorway (light off so my presence didn't disturb the parent) and watched through the lens. The nestlings are also watching and waiting, in their case for mum or dad to arrive with the next snack.

I don't have to watch for a parent approaching, as the nestlings tell me with their reaction, then I start shooting.

Parent is presumably circling just out of view, probably about a metre to my left.

Parent has circled to the left.

Then landed and deposited a tasty morsel to the lucky recipient.

Next visit, a different nestling receives their share. Note how bottom right the top of the head of a fourth nestling is just visible sitting in the nest and not begging. It's probably still digesting a large bug from a previous visit so is not hungry.

These photos were taken a week ago. Warou nestlings fledge 18 days after hatching, so they are probably already flying birds.