Feathered welfare scroungers

I've been putting out large dishes of birdseed for some time now. Most of it goes straight down the gullets of a family of woodpigeons, which has done rather well this year. The parents seem to be on their second brood - can't think why else they've been collecting twigs - and as a result they're very anxious to get a large family of ungainly teenagers off their hands (or maybe that should be wings). Like most teenagers, however, the children are bone idle and in no hurry to get their own food. Instead, they've been following their parents everywhere, wings outstretched and mouths open.

I have a feeling that the harassed parents had a word with their children recently and it went something like this: 'look, we can't feed you any more. If you can't find your own food you'll just have to go on welfare. Just fly down and sit at that table looking confused and helpless until someone fills the bowl up again.'

Hmmm. There are already four babies, plus parents. And they're on their second family. I think the birdseed bill may be getting rather out of hand by the autumn ....

 

Yes, Clara Lou. Birds of all kinds can be little scroungers. I saw this recently.
We had a baby blackbird about the garden. Quite a big baby managing to feed itself.
A very young baby blackbird appeared, it still had the fluffy head.
It was following the big baby about and standing with it's mouth open begging for food. I thought it had no chance of getting any but when I looked again the big baby was feeding the little baby. I've seen the parents do it often enough but first time I've seen a baby feeding a baby.

 

More interesting bird behaviour from this year.
We have sparrows nesting under the eaves - noisy objects.
They are on their third brood for this year.
When they were rearing the second brood a spare hen sparrow turned up and seemed very determined to be in at that nest.
The parents were having none of it and chased her and duffed her up every time she tried to get near the nest.
They are now on the third brood and that spare hen sparrow is still around but this time they are letting her feed the chicks in the nest - so those chicks are being fed by 2 hens and a cock.
Has anyone else seen "aunties" helping out at a nest.