Birds

Feeding a Fledgling Song Thrush

July 16, 2012 by Corey 2 Comments

Do you know what the luckiest little bird in the world is? It is a fledgling Song Thrush being attended by a parent outside of the wonderful Nomad Hotel in Hungary’s Bükk Hills. Food for a fledgling thrush is abundant in June with everything from ripe cherries on the trees to loads of snails crawling through the leaf litter. A diet of perfectly ripe cherries and escargot sounds great for humans and for a baby bird it is practically paradisaical.

The particular fledgling Turdus philomelos in this post was sitting in a tree just outside the front door of the hotel and was initially spotted by Jeff Gordon. After his spot of the bird Jeff wandered into the hotel and therefore missed the action that follows by about a minute. Fortunately, he can make up for it now by looking at these pictures. Enjoy!

I am so hungry…

Yes! Mom’s here! FEED ME!!!

om nom nom nom nom

More! I want more!

I hope she brings me more cherries and not a slimy slug.

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My week-long trip to Hungary was a familiarity trip organized by the wonderful folks at Swarovski Optik to introduce their new line of superior spotting scopes, the ATX and the STX modular telescopes. We visited Hortobágy National Park, the Bükk Hills and places in between. Many thanks to Swarovski Optik for inviting me along and letting me experience both some awesome new optics and the natural wonders of the wonderful country of Hungary.

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Baby Bird Week is our celebration of the young, the cute, the adorable, the twee. We certainly spend enough time on adult birds here on 10,000 Birds so we figured it would only make sense to fawn over the fuzzy bundles of fluff that grow up to become the objects of our fascination. Whether you seek out waterfowl, songbirds, or seabirds we will have baby birds to match your obsession.

Baby Bird Week will run from 15-21 July, Sunday until Saturday. Make sure to check back every day or even multiple times a day to keep up with all the baby bird goodness!

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Written by Corey
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.