Over the weekend, the chicks started to grab the prey and self-feed. The adult male, Xavier, is now just dropping off the prey and leaving the chicks to deal with it. It took a while for this to sink in, but finally one of them (female, I think) took advantage of this and started plucking. There was no aggression between the chicks, apart from the odd tug-of-war and prey has been coming in fairly regularly – rather a lot of eastern rosellas this week.
Although, I’m still not 100% convinced, we think we have a female and a male chick. There is a small size difference now. It’s hard to tell earlier than four weeks because, although eventually smaller, the male grows and matures more quickly, so compensates for his smaller size. After three or four weeks, the female grows more, but is still a bit fluffier, so when they are both sitting on the ledge, one can clearly see the difference. They are not quite at that stage yet, but this video does provide an indication (and also a rather dramatic fly-by).
VIDEO 20181029 1606 gender diff, male left
So, on the assumption we have one of each, the female is called Gaama (=storm) and the male is called Budhin (=sunbeam).
And I should add that I think the female is on the right!
I think Gaama is a good name for a female. We need some training to differentiate them. As Gaama is #2 (even with only one day apart with Budhin), she doesn’t look as big as female.
The size difference last year was so dramatic compared to this pair. I really had myself convinced that these two were of the same gender.