The Courtship feeding of Orange-headed Thrush

[Samrat Sarkar]

Only male initiate the construction of nest. Here the male is collecting nesting materials.

[Samrat Sarkar]

The male is putting a twig into nest.

[Samrat Sarkar]

The female is collecting nesting materials.

[Samrat Sarkar]

But the female didn't put the twigs into nest. She probably just instigate the male to initiate the nesting work sitting beside the nest.

[Samrat Sarkar]

The male is pressing the nesting materials by his chest to shape the nest.

[Samrat Sarkar]

Here the female is begging for food from male

[Samrat Sarkar]

The male is collecting nesting materials along with mud for lining the nest.

[Samrat Sarkar]

The male rubs his chest and coats the inside of the nest with mud. The female sits near the nest and watches.

[Samrat Sarkar]

The male rubs his chest in such a way that the inside of the nest is evenly coated with mud

[Samrat Sarkar]

You can see mud stains on the male's chest feathers.

[Samrat Sarkar]

The male even soaks his breast feathers in water if the mud coating inside the nest dries out in the high midday temperatures.

[Samrat Sarkar]

It as the Male of 2025. Probably the Male is same one it was in 2024..

[Samrat Sarkar]

The same one as it was in 2024

[Samrat Sarkar]

Here I am presenting the full sequences of incubation mate feeding behaviour of Orange headed Thrush. In this image female was incubating.

[Samrat Sarkar]

Seeing the male was coming with food female just lift herself from incubation posture.

[Samrat Sarkar]

The male came with food near nest and the female started begging.

[Samrat Sarkar]

After that...

[Samrat Sarkar]

After that....

[Samrat Sarkar]

After that...

[Samrat Sarkar]

After that...

[Samrat Sarkar]

The male is feeding the female during incubation...

[Samrat Sarkar]

After that...

[Samrat Sarkar]

Incubation mate feeding completed...

[Samrat Sarkar]

The male leaved the nest and female resumed incubation

[Sarbasish Saha]

very informative research...

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Nice observations Samrat! Here the mate has to work hard to prepare the nest and impress the female. In many bird species the mate selection is dependent on the quality of nest that the male builds. As a man if you can't provide for food and shelter than how can you expect a mate goes the thinking.

Thanks for sharing.

[Samrat Sarkar]

very informative research...

Thank you brother....

[Samrat Sarkar]

Nice observations Samrat! Here the mate has to work hard to prepare the nest and impress the female. In many bird species the mate selection is dependent on the quality of nest that the male builds. As a man if you can't provide for food and shelter than how can you expect a mate goes the thinking.

Thanks for sharing.

truly spoke...Dada. The female only incubates in OHT species. The male offers at least four potential nesting site to female, builds the finale nest as per choice of female among those sites, protects the territory, guards the nest and family but does not incubate. He only supplies food to female when the female is busy in incubation. In that way female may spend more and more time into incubation. This the way of contribution of a male towards parental care in pre fledging stage. I have tried for last eight odd years to capture the whole sequences of "incubation mate feeding at nest behaviour" of OHT and lastly achieved some presentable images this year. "Incubation mate feeding at nest" is one of the most private and intimate behaviour of a OHT. The male often/generaly invokes female outside the nest and feeds her during incubation and then female goes back to nest and resumes incubation. But feeding at nest during incubation is very very rare.