Prooioverdracht van oude naar jonge Boomvalken Falco subbuteo: een beeldverslag met commentaar

In farmland with woodlots and hedgerows in the central Netherlands near Deventer, a Hobby pair successfully fledged three chicks on 9 August 2012 (of which at least one survived in the weeks to follow). The open landscape, where electricity pylons were used as favourite sitting posts, permitted photographic recording of the postfledging behaviour. Start of laying must have been in early June (5-8), based on presumed fledging date. At first, prey transfers took place in tree tops, where the young took positions with an unobstructed view of the surroundings. On 9 August, the adult male was recorded carrying a dragonfly in its bill, and the subsequent prey transfer on a branch was bill-to-bill. Not much later, on 13 and 17 August, the young still showed rounded wings (not yet fully grown), but nevertheless anticipated preycarrying adults in flight whilst begging persistently. Adult Hobbies again carried captured dragonflies in the bill, and the young grabbed the prey with their feet using a backflip. The photographs show precise timing and accurate prey transfer, even when several individuals were chasing the adult. One of the adults switched a captured Bam Swallow Hirundo rustica from feet to bill just before prey transfer took place in the air. The photographs show that young Hobbies quickly learn to fly and that their manoeuvrability is already fine-tuned to such an extent that aerial prey transfers (bill to feet) can be performed immaculately within a week after fledging.