The tale of three pairs of grey-rumped treeswits

Lucky me to have chanced upon the nesting sites of three pairs of grey-rumped treeswifts. The first pair nested at the beginning of May but crows destroyed the nest (see earlier post).

The second pair at a different location started nest building in May and their chick hatched at the beginning of June, and it lived through the worse smog in Singapore's history. This chick fledged end-of-June.

Second female incubating a single egg in the nest cup

A newly hatched chick revealed for the first time in the nest cup

The male shares equal feeding duties with the female

The chick after a month of feeding and living through PSI400. It fledged on the morning of 28 Jun.

The third pair started nesting at the beginning of July. Based on my previous observations, it takes a month of incubation before the chick hatches and another month for the chick to grow before it is ready to fledge. Thus by my estimates this third pair should be feeding a chick by the time I got back from my trip. However, when I checked on the 12th they were still tending to their egg, which I suspected was dead. The pair abandoned their nest and egg on 16 August but they hung around for another two days before leaving the area. 

I was hoping to see another chick but it wasn't meant to be, and my heart went out to the pair that diligently tended to their one egg.

Male building the nest cup in early July

Female tending to the egg on 12 Aug

The abandoned egg on 16 Aug