Male behaviour

Throughout our observations it is clear that the male OPH has only one mission in life: the feeding of his mate and their chicks. From sunrise to sunset (approximately 07:00 to 19:00) his entire day is spent foraging for food and bringing this food to the nest. In addition, of course, he must consume sufficient food himself to fuel his incessant activity. The earliest feeding was seen at 07:22 and the latest at 18:40

The male’s behaviour pattern changed little throughout the period of observation. Upon returning to the nest site, he would appear quite cautious, perching for a few moments on a nearby tree, or on the nesting tree, sometimes on both, appearing to assess his surroundings for any danger. Interestingly, he was never seen to pay any attention to the human activity going on beneath him, but only look around for natural danger at the nest level.

He would then hop or fly to the nest and begin to feed his mate and the chicks. Usually he would have one item of food in his bill upon arriving at the nest and would then regurgitate further items of food (generally one piece at a time). The food was then fed piece by piece into the nest cavity. Using a scope, we were able to see that on some occasions he would refuse the female food, preferring instead to feed the chicks directly.

Feeding would take one to ten minutes depending on the quantity he regurgitated, and after this the male would fly to a nearby branch, or to another tree, rest for a minute or two, and then fly away to continue gathering food.