Kestrel chicks have powerful feeding instincts. Watch this hungry brood snatch at their mum Athena's tail feathers during their dinnertime frenzy.
Hungry kestrel chicks
Kestrel’s Apollo and Athena have five healthy chicks and the male Apollo is a great provider. Watch him deliver a small sparrow to the nest as Athena broods. The chicks are impatient and can't wait for mum Athena to get this dinner ready. As she plucks and prepares the bird, the chicks cheep out in hunger, their beaks wide open - an instinctive reflux when Apollo delivers food. Athena eventually responds and begins to feed, but the pieces are still too large for these week-old chicks to chew. As she turns away to break it up into smaller bits, the chicks begin snatching at her tail feathers.
