Admissions to kindergarten section in Nature’s school now on

Bronze winged jacana young at Karani Thangal in Ottiyambakkam on Karanai Main Road on March 4, 2024. Photo: Prince Frederick 
| Photo Credit: PRINCE FREDERICK

In this image taken at Karapakkam on February 24, 2025 are two moorhen chicks, both displaying a hint of purple on the breast. Photo: Prince Frederick   
| Photo Credit:
PRINCE FREDERICK

An Eurasian coot family at Thalambur lake on March 4, 2025.
| Photo Credit:
PRINCE FREDERICK

If one had a look-in at waterbodies around Chennai now, they would likely have a glimpse of birds just enrolled in Nature’s kindergarten. With a variety of resident birds having successfully planned a family and going through the drudge work of raising it, there are parenting lessons to be gleaned from the field. In the avian world, the parent is the teacher, and the hearth the classroom.

Skill training from a full set of teachers is a luxury avians cannot afford: they have to make do with guiding principles provided by their parents. Bronze-winged jacanas grow up in what is largely a single parent family: the male takes up child-rearing duties and the female hovers around just to protect the territory. Among species where the father rears the brood, the male Bronze winged jacana deserves beaucoup extra points for being permissive without letting the young off the hook. The male Bronze-winged jacana gives the young some leeway, letting them stray a short distance from him, but is on the qui vive for danger (see the picture of the parent bird as well his young one on the alert at a lake on Karanai Main Road in Ottiyambakkam on March 4, 2025) and gathers the young under his wings at the slightest hint of danger.

The Purple moorhen’s parenting style borders on the rigid: young ones seen as clamouring hard for food can expect a violent rebuff from the parent. The images of the Purple moorhen young (taken at Karapakkam on February 24, 2025) show them with a patch of purple on their breast, suggesting they could be past the age when they can be annoyingly persistent in their demand for food; there is a familiarity to this image of a family of Eurasian coots at Thalambur lake on March 5, 2025. Both parents are equally invested in child-rearing. When danger is perceived, they team up to lead their young ones to safety.