This is what happens when Yellow-Crowned Night Heron chick parents aren't around.
Papa Yellow-Crowned Night Heron is standing on the side of the nest, asleep.
The chicks are asleep in the nest. But then, quick as a snap of my fingers, the young bundles wake. Papa's beak-point-skyward response makes me think he is making a bit of a "get ready, the kids are up" gesture.
In a papa-night-heron mimic or feed me gesture—chick says, "I can do that, too."
What is clear—the chicks are up!
Papa night-heron stretches his wings. "I'm going to fly this coop!"
Wait, wait. We'll settle down. Too late, Papa night-heron takes off. When he leaves, the chicks get active. Real active.
They step on the edge of the nest.
Out of the nest.
(The nest is about 30 feet above in a Slash Pine tree.)
There's wing-flapping.
One flapper ignites another flapper!
I can't contain my laughter. They stand on the edge and flap-hop into the nest.
They take turns. (Sort of.) I get nervous. I don't want to take a chick to wildlife rehab.
As quick as it all starts, it ends. Exhausted from play, the chicks plop in a restful heap inside the nest. There they stay, though twice raised up, perhaps looking for parent night herons bringing a fiddler crab meal.
