Something very special here.

This tiny beauty is a Southern Double-collared Sunbird baby. But how do I know what it is?
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My first to get shots of a sunbird baby out of its nest and I will show you in here how I know what it is.

You can imagine how excited I was to get this rare occasion, as normally the sunbird babies are hidden beyond sight until they can feed and fly by themselves. Like I said, it was a rare occasion, as I have never seen this before. And so, I forgot all about the world and time, to focus on what I love and that is to take photos of Mother Nature's wild residents.
So, come and be amazed with me.

It was at first sitting here and a strange peep alerted me, so I searched and found it.
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Two birds sat in a tree close by and they were looking at the tree that the baby was in. The first bird below is a male Soutern Double-collared Sunbird (Cinnyris chalybeus)
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And the second bird was a Malachite Sunbird (Nectarinia famosa).
So whose baby was it?
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We will soon see whose baby it was, as the baby hopped a bit higher up in the tree, preening itself.
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At first the mother arrived to feed the little one, but the sun was too sharp to identify, as the females of the two male sunbirds look very similar.
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But here was the clincher, as the male double-collared dad arrived to feed.
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And I waited to see if the dad would return. Yes, he did twice more in the two photos below.
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This was the third time that the dad returned, and he took about 10 to 15 minutes to go and catch an insect between the meals.
By now, Marian came to look for me as you know how females like to wait:)
She thought maybe I had been kidnapped for ransom, but not so as one has to have patience to get some decent shots.
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Unbelievable! The mom came in and landed on top of the baby but look how strong the grip of the baby was, carrying both of their weights with only one foot.
I think that she wanted to take him away, but I cannot see her carrying his weight in flight.
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And finally, the baby was back to preening again.
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What a wonderful adventure, and I am so grateful to have seen and to have been able to capture this. Nature can work in strange ways some days, as at times, due to the inclement weather, I can only get 12 or 15 shots on a day. But then again, on another day I can come away with about 300 shots.
Of course, I took many photos of this occasion, and I will place some more photos about this baby in the future.
After the baby started preening, we had to leave and I could unfortunately not see what happened afterwards, but I am sure that the baby was okay.
I hope that you have enjoyed the story and the pictures.

And That's All Friends.

Photos by Zac Smith-All Rights Reserved.

Camera: Canon Powershot SX70HS Bridge camera.

Thank you kindly for supporting a post on behalf of @papilloncharity



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35 comments
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Gorgeous photo shoot with little one, identity confirmed through the Papa bird, gorgeous!

@tipu curate

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Thank you Lady Joan and I think that I don't need to tell you how I felt during the photo shoot and when I saw the photos on the PC. As happy as ever.

Thank you also for the tipu.

!PIZZA !LOLZ !LUV !WINEX

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How often one is second guessing in bright sunlight only able to decide once uploaded to bigger frame, always excellent from your side!

!PIZZA
!WINEX

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Thank you and yes, have had many trails and errors in bright sunlight. Once I even damaged the old SX60s color diodes due to direct sunlight entering the lens and the entire part that forms a part of the zoom had to be replaced. Costed almost as much as the camera did.

!PIZZA
!WINEX

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Forever positioning to try avoid sunlight have had some nasty lessons but no permanent damage... touch wood

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Touch wood indeed. They also supplied me with a sun filter that clips onto the lens, but I don't use it as it blurs quick taken shots.

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No I never use filter on lens, prefer to angle behind something in shade when taking pics.

!LUV

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Clever and I also seek out shade under a tree, or a bush. Sometimes even on my stomach under a bush 🤣

!LUV

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Never go grovelling around under bushes, had a centipede waltz through the house the other night again, if they venture indoors they are out there under bushes they call home.

!LOLZ

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Hahaha, poor centipede. I have had a few spider bites on my legs, but now we spray my socks with a special organic lavender and citronella mix and since then no more spider bites.

!LOLZ

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Spray doesn't stop most who decide to enjoy a bit of me, still regularly have bites.

!WINEX

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Touch wood, no bites for the last two years, but maybe I talk too soon.
Some say they bite me because of the pills that I take every day and you must obviously also have something in your blood that they like.

!WINEX

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They never arrive one at a time, full on feasting to drive me crazy...

!LOLZ

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Look at it this way, there is hunger everywhere and at least you are kind enough to feed the masses.

Some !WINEX in your blood will make them fly slowly so that you can get them.

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I did! You always tell us the doings of mother nature and that is admirable. Are you part of some magazine? This is beautiful. I only came across some baby doves (is that what they are called?) as they had a nest over the entrance of my store. It was quite the site when they'd puff their chest and give me a mean look🤣I guess they considered me a threat. I just laugh and stick my tongue at them. One time, one of them tilted its head at my silliness and I could not hold my laughter!

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Hi, no I am not part of any magazines, although one of my dragonfly photos was published in a USA wildlife magazine some years ago, I am just an ordinary nature lover.
Baby doves are lovely and we have hundreds of them here. My wife feeds them with wild bird seeds.

!LOL

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This is beautiful. It's awesome how nature decided to give you an amazing encounter with the bird and her family this time.

Thanks for sharing with us Papillon.

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Mother nature likes me and she shows me her treasures :)

Always a pleasure to share.

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Mother nature likes me and she shows me her treasures :)

Truly, I can see that 😇

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Seriouly though, whenever one spends long periods in nature, than the surprises start to emerge.
One just has to look a little deeper at things :)

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