Comments like this one add so much to the spotting. I once hand fed an owl chick fresh meat...I used blunt tweezers that looked like beak...thank you for adding this information.
thanks mauna. i was having second thoughts about this ID. I have seen other ground squirrels around the yard.
Looks like a small, undernourished hen alright. Chicks are dark balls of fluff. Adults have a white face, neck and neck. They have greatly elongated toes and keep flicking their toes as they walk. they have dark backs and wings. Rust coloured vent feathers...and a pink 'bindi on the spot where the upper beak meets the body.
Sorry for the delayed response.
Yes the egg was intended as food but the shikra was not interested in it at all. I finally fed it raw meat stripped from bones.
The main trouble I faced was that the baby was not eating by itself when given the food. Then someone advised me to try and feed it by hand which was an extremely difficult task. The trick was to cover the eyes with a towel, which immediately calmed it down and it started eating out of my hands 🙂
Hemiptera; Pentatomidae. Like I have said in other spottings, I do not like to get stuck at family level because (for me anyway) it almost has connotations of laziness. But we all know that these bugs are so numerous that it can be next to impossible to I.D. them properly. I always look for the clues that I think will help me most. Things like the head, that kind of round cornered triangle shape with bulging eyes at the side.These make it sure to be a Hemipter. The laterotergites, the shape of the pronotum and the large scutellum all combine to confirm it is a Shield Bug. But the best identifier for any shield bug lies in its name "Pentatomidae". This name is derived from two Classical Greek words which mean "five sections", referring to the antennae. So, if it looks like a Hemipter and the antennae have five segments....well you know the rest. Don't forget the old maxim "If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck" but just be careful, it might be a small goose !