It would be nice to see more of the roof because they they move out of the viewing area quite often, Green boy especially.
I thought about that RCF but the light's a bit flat and their brown/white feather patterns are acting as camoflauge against the roof - it has similar light/dark patches. Will keep an eye on it and see what I can do to find a middle ground that will let everyone see enough details on the chicks at the same time giving a view of their new playground.
BTW Green did a hop-flap from the top of the ramp down to the roof when food came in early this morning, Red and White already had their mouths open and he looked pretty determined not to miss out on his fair share.
Speaking of which, meant to post this after the banding, Hurricane and Brooklyn are good parents and they feed the chicks about the same as most of our pairs have done, so they are all strong, healthy and well-developed. But I sure noticed a difference between the Brandon chicks and the Radisson chicks at banding - the Radisson chicks were very well-padded - not fat but with more stored reserves on their bodies than most birds (other than Ivy & Princess' chicks) that I've banded. Trey's and Princess' were probably closer to Hurricane and Brooklyn than Ivy and Princess.
There is a spot on a bird's breast that is an easy indicator of how well-fed a bird is - songbird banders use a visual assessment of this spot to determine body condition which in turn can provide some long term trend information on nesting/habitat conditions in an area. Songbird banders check the spot when they have the bird in their hand to band them and they make the assessment in seconds because they try not to hold a bird for more than a couple of minutes. They take all sorts of measurements, visually assess conditioning, sex them, band them and release them. Its amazing to watch. We don't take the same measurements and some of our assessments are tactile as well as visual but we too try to minimize time "in the hand" to 5 minutes or less. The stored reserves measurement is done tactilely - I can feel the spot under my hands as we band the chicks - because of their downy feathers, its too difficult to see visually at banding age. The Brandon chicks were good, the Radisson birds were "plump" in comparison. And by now however, the Radisson chicks are much less "plump" in part because of their increased activity (flying) in part because their parents will be encouraging/teaching them to hunt so there is less food-in-the-fridge.
