Female IRN "fostering" an unrelated chick

[Wessel Gordon]

At the end of last year I bought a chick of about 8 weeks old at the time (he/she's roughly 3 months old now) that according to it's breeder had been hand-reared at least for awhile. When I placed it in a cage with an 8-9 year old female I have the adult bird started regurgitating and feeding the youngster as soon as it begged for food.

The adult female has laid a few occasional eggs over the years but they invariably never hatched. Since she has a devoted male with her I can't say for certain if the eggs were infertile or not.

Is this feeding of an unrelated youngster a known behaviour among IRN's?

Wessel Gordon

[Kiki22]

Sorry I don't know but just wanted to say I think that's great

[MissK]

Somebody step up to confirm or deny, but it is my impression that when a baby bird starts begging, adult birds are moved to comply.