Berry College Day 16&18 Coot Video

Yesterday morning (2/28), Mom Berry brought a Coot to the nest. I thought it was a great video to capture. Mom arrives at the nest with a prey item. Then she turns and you can clearly see that it is a Coot:

Mom makes quick work of removing the feathers and starts feeding the babies. Dad Berry is there and then he leaves and then he comes back. At one point, Mom impresses them all with her Coot head eating skills:

Then Mom flies off the back of the nest (and you can see how her left foot sticks out). All good stuff. Then, as I was editing the video, I realized that the Coot was alive way too long. So, even though we are all used to the bloody feedings, it's unsettling to watch knowing that the Coot suffered through quite a bit of this video. For that reason, I am putting a warning on here to not watch it if you are sensitive. Alternatively, you can watch it from the start until 1:12 and then skip to 8:20. Here's the link. (15:17)

Here's a couple of s'caps from today:

 

And here's a quick video of the chicks interacting with each other and one of them trying out its wings.