40-day vigil ends after three Hoopoe chicks leave the nest

TAIPING: A 40-day vigil has come to an end after three Hoopoe chicks that hatched in the hollow nest of Pokok Jemerlang (Yellow Flame) at the Taiping Lake Gardens finally flew from their nest on three different days.

Taiping Municipal Council (MPT) president Khairul Amir Mohamad Zubir said the first flew away at 8.06 am on May 14, the second at 10.30 am on May 15 and the third at 11.20 pm on May 17. (Hoopoes are colourful birds found across Africa, Asia, and Europe.)

He said the pair of male and female birds were first detected making nests on the tree on April 5 to lay eggs.

He said that since the eggs were laid, the council had carried out a 24-hour monitoring programme involving the Taiping Zoo Department, Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) and Nature Educational Society (NEST).

"Nearly 100 people visited the breeding site daily to see the birds and during the Movement Control Order (MCO), 30 personnel were there to observe the pair of Hoopoes.

"The observations found that the pair of Hoopoes took turns to fly more than 200 times a day from as early as 7 am until 6 pm to find food to feed their chicks," he said in a statement today, adding that among the type of food were fish fry, spiders, larvae, caterpillars, locusts, cockroaches, centipedes and beetles.

Khairul Amir said they were currently collecting and updating data at the site because the successful breeding of this migratory bird from Afro-Eurasia also helped make the ecotourism agenda in the city a success.

-- BERNAMA