white-breasted waterhen & chicks @ Lorong Halus, Singapore - 20Dec2013

The undergrowth was abuzz with chirping as I walked past it and the chirpers soon showed themselves chasing after their parent waterhen as it went about looking for breakfast for its hungry brood of three little jet-black long-legged downy balls.

Two of the chicks seemed to be more dependent on the parent and rarely strayed more than a half a metre from it. The third was however more independent and did not seem to mind being away from the protective wings of the parent bird. The parent bird extended back its wings as if to provide shelter for its brood eventhough the chicks seemed a little big to all fit under the umbrella at the same time.

The parent bird went about picking grass seeds for the chicks which were obviously in a somewhat vertically challenged state.

white-breasted waterhen & chicks @ lorong halus, singapore - 20Dec2013 from SgBeachBum on Vimeo.

Find out more about the white-breasted waterhen here :

http://www.naturia.per.sg/buloh/birds/Amaurornis_phoenicurus.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-breasted_Waterhen

http://singaporebirds.net/npassers_02/white-breasted_waterhen.html(incl. audio link)

http://www.besgroup.org/2011/03/22/call-of-the-white-breasted-waterhen/ (w. video)

http://ibc.lynxeds.com/species/white-breasted-waterhen-amaurornis-phoenicurus

http://www.xeno-canto.org/species/Amaurornis-phoenicurus (incl. audio links)

http://www.ecologyasia.com/verts/birds/rails.htm

http://www.oiseaux-birds.com/card-white-breasted-waterhen.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZLv30uzd44 (a nice clip by iHengbok)