Nemo finally fledges, despite his deformation, and we spend our days following the family of 5 Blue-throated Macaws.
January 8th 2008
Nemo, the macaw chick with a congenital spine deformation, has successfully fledged!!! Actually, he fledged about a week ago, during a period of time when I was so excited, both by the arrival of friends and by following the family of 5 Blue-throated Macaws through the forest, that I didn't write a thing in my journal for six days.
Nemo in nest box. He was able to walk but often flipped onto his back when startled.
Nemo fledged—able to fly, just like his sibs!
The day after Steve and Carmen arrived, our nest watch efforts revealed that Nemo was no longer popping his head out of the box. I climbed the tree and confirmed that the next was empty. We feared the worst and even looked around on the ground. Luckily there was no sign of him there. The next morning, Carmen, Steve and I conducted a systematic search of the forest near the nest box, looking for the BTM pair and the 3 (hopefully!) fledged chicks. Only fourty minutes later we were standing together, staring in silent awe at the 3 fledglings, huddled together, high in a tree. Even Nemo was there! One could see that he was slightly crooked, even from this distance, but it was clear that he was able to fly and indeed had done quite a respectable job of fledging compared to Manu and Goliath.
During all of our subsuquent days at Tres Palmeras we were able to locate all three fledgings, often with their parents, at least once per day. This afforded all sorts of photographic opportunities, which Steve and I took advantage of for hours on end, taking shot after shot of the birds. They were usually hidden behind foliage at the tops of the highest trees, but our efforts were rewarded with some great views into the lives of newly fledged Blue-throated Macaw chicks.
Steve's efforts particularly, were rewarded with the first photos of a wild family of five blue-throated Macaws. Below I will share some of the best photos that Steve and I took of the Tres Palmeras macaw family:
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