Parenting

Child rearing for most birds is a two-parent arrangement, with both Mum and Dad worked off their feet by demanding children, but for some birds it's a mother-only effort.  This greylag goose mother stood constant guard over her four young for several weeks while they grazed across a field in Annbank croft.  Shortly after this picture was taken, the family disappeared.

Some birds seem to do their parenting communally.  Starlings form flocks of twenty to thirty which are a mixture of adults and young.  In their hurry as they fly from one food source to another they make a swishing sound as they pass.  And eating is a very noisy affair, with everyone telling everyone else what a wonderful tidbit they've just found.  We dread them arriving on our terrace as they gobble up everything we've put out for the small birds, and Tom Bryson at Craigard Croft has had to take active measures to keep them off his poultry food.

Starlings are famous for forming large flocks, but the other bird that does it is the sparrow.  Considering what argumentative birds they are, this is really quite surprising.  The flock in this picture is based in a tangled mass of brambles and bracken, and has found a convenient nearby fence form which to organise foraging operations.

And birds have the same problems with their young as humans.  This great tit is definitely a teenager, sporting the equivalent of a punk hairdo.