Baby bird

We now have three chicken doves who peck seeds in our garden each morning, despite the best efforts of the currawongs to keep this family's number down to two.

I hadn't been posting much about our doves nesting efforts since the first slaying as it's been like something out of a Tarantino movie around here. I came out onto our back deck once to see a currawong sitting on our fence holding a cracked egg in its claw like a bottle of beer. It quickly sculled the contents before flying off.

On Saturday evening, though, I was sitting on the deck while the husband cooked dinner. I looked up into the tree and saw what I thought was our two doves, and then I realised there were three - and one quite a bit smaller than the other two. (One of the parents had dropped to the grass for a bit of a peck when this pic was taken.)

As you can see he or she has yet to grow into its looks - or its beak - and hasn't yet developed the spotted band around its neck. But, right now, I think this is probably the prettiest bird I've ever seen.