As Nicole Taylor walks through her garden on a beautiful summer’s day, she notices something strange in the grass. What is it?
At first she thinks it’s a mushroom, but then quickly realizes that she was wrong. There is a baby bird.
Ictinia mississippiensis
Nicole can’t tell what kind of bird it is. She asks Marcia Woody, her mother, but she doesn’t know exactly either. An owl perhaps?
The two women send a picture of the bird to a wildlife rehabilitation center and now it’s clear:
It is a rare Mississippi buzzard (Ictinia mississippiensis).
A nest is being built
Unfortunately, there is no room for the little one at the rehabilitation center right now. But the staff tell Nicole and Marcia exactly what to do now.
They are to build a nest and place it on the lowest branch of the nearest tree.
Together with Nicole’s husband Mike, the two women carry out the instructions. The young bird in the tree will hopefully persuade the parents to come back.
The return
It doesn’t take long for this hope to be fulfilled. Soon the little bird’s voice echoes joyfully through the garden.
Nicole and Marcia see that one of the two parents has returned to feed the young bird.
The second parent soon appears too. Together they continue to raise their offspring as if nothing had happened.
Up and away
Nicole and Marcia can now observe the bird’s development at close range. At first it is still so small that its parents press the food directly into its beak.
As the young bird grows bigger and stronger, they simply place the food in the nest.
He soon leaves the nest to explore his tree, and it is not long before he takes to the skies.
For a while, Nicole and Marcia can still watch the young bird and its parents flying around and hunting insects.
Then they suddenly disappear. But that is no cause for concern. Mississippi buzzards are migratory birds.
The time has come for the family to fly to their wintering grounds in South America.
Source: The Dodo
