Adult wading birds feeding their young at The Venice Rookery

How do you feed your children?

Spending hours at The Venice Rookery on my new project, bird photography, I get the chance just to watch and observe different behaviours. One that started to get my attention was the different way some of the nesting birds fed their young.

A Great Blue Heron with one chick arrives on the tops of the bushes behind the nest, makes a grand entrance from above, then feeds the fledgeling beak to beak…..

Another Great Blue Heron with two chicks, glides into the nest, lets the chicks “beg” for food then throws it up in the bottom of the nest for the chicks to devour and quickly leaves the nest ……

The most curious was the Anhinga. It flew into the nest with three chicks, keeps its head held high and the three chicks try to reach it, then it selects one and the lucky chick puts its bill, head and neck down the adult’s throat and neck, presumably to the stomach! You can even see the shape of the fledgeling’s head in the adult’s neck. When enough is enough the adult shakes the fledgeling out of its neck and bill. What a spectacle. I bet the adult Great Blue Herons are glad they aren’t Anhingas!