The starlings jump

Today there was a clamour of 'charr!' calls from adults and fledgling starlings in my street. Several families of starlings accompanied from their noisy offspring fed on the verges. The young ones watched their parents and appear to move in slow motion compared to their frantic parents foraging on the grass and then feeding their young. Occasionally passers by would idadvertently scare the birds and the families would become separated. The young called from trees and roofs until they got together with their parents again. A fledgling spent some time on a tree, probing - in that unique starling style - with its bill open, on leaves and branches around it.

busy parent with head down and watchful young.

Calling

Probing, tasting, leaves 

Calling!

Young starlings have a heron-like look to them

Investigating

more calling!

its a big bad world out there

Wren fledglings

I heard some thin calls coming from a thicket in the University Wildlife Area. Two alternating calls, probably coming from two recenlty fledged chicks. Chicks calling alternatively are incredibly difficult to locate as each call makes you look in a different direction. I spotted an adult Wren giving an alarm call nearby and waited. Eventually an adult approached one of the chicks to feed it and I could see where it hid. The chicks were sitting inside some nettles. I could only get a poor shot, but it shows the yellow rim of the mouth typical of chicks.

Worms, quick, quick!

Blackbird fledglings are out and about. Their urging 'quick, quick' calls to their parent to bring food make them easy to track. If the female is not ready to lay a second clutch, the pair of Blackbirds will divide the care of the brood amongst for up to ten days after the young leave the nest. If the female has already started laying, then the male takes care of the whole brood, running back and fro in search of food for his demanding young. This behaviour is a trade-off: the male taking charge allows shorter intervals between broods - and therefore higher chances that more chicks are produced in a season - but the more young he is feeding, the lower the chances they will all reach independence.
Yesterday, a male sang while it flew toward his charge, like he didn't want to waste a minute - a stressed, multitasking parent. Then, landing nearby, caught a large earthworm and banged it against the ground several times while the fledgling called insistently. The male offered the worm to the young, and he swallowed it voraciously.

Gradually the young will learn to catch prey or find food by themselves, and by 2-3 weeks after leaving the nest they will reach full independence.

More information:
PHILLIP J. EDWARDS (1985) Brood division and transition to independence in Blackbirds Turdus merula. Ibis, 127: 42-59. here.