Neus and Oriol chick out of the nest. © Boumort – Alinyà TeamThe three chicks born in the 2013 season have completed their development and seem to have synchronized their departure from the nest, starting their first flights in the second week of August.

On 6 August, the Perla and Portell chick left the nest, with 126 days of age. It is the third year that this pair is successfully breeding. Its devotion to the breeding has been exemplary since in 2010 get raised Gala, the first chick born in the reintroduction programme.

The next one to fly was the Mario and Menta chick, behind in its development and finally adopted by Neus and Oriol. Without a decisive commitment of this pioneering initiative, as it was his rescue and subsequent adoption by a first-time couple that has proven to be exemplary, this chicken could never feel the warm breeze of the Sierra de Boumort sliding between her feathers. To see him flying, with 130 days of age and a remarkable control in its movements, is perhaps the greatest reward we can get to our devotion and care regarding the colony of Boumort-Alinyà.

Bruna and corneli chicken after its first flight. © Boumort – Alinyà TeamThe most precocious one was the chick from Bruna and Corneli. When being 110 days old he left the nest, about 10 days before what it is normal in the species. Did he do it by choice or did it fall because any of the thin lateral branches where it used to perch bent? We will never know. What we can say is that the last stage has not been easy for this chick. Thanks to a thorough monitoring, we have observed a gradual disengagement from their parents in the last period of breeding. This is why it has been necessary to provide additional food to facilitate obtaining an optimal condition in the final development of this chick, which now exercises shy flights around the nest, waiting patiently for his parents visit.

Oriol and Neus chose one of the artificial platforms emplaced at higher altitudes, while Pearl and Portell opted this year to build their nest a few meters from the platform that had been used so far, and Bruna and Corneli continue breeding in the same natural nest that were using in previous years.