For the past few months, the YouTube channel Bird World Life has been tracking the growth and development of a group of young kestrels, a small species of falcon, via a camera placed near their nesting box.
The resulting videos have offered an intimate glimpse into the early life of these little birds of prey. But their road to fierce adulthood hasn’t quite reached the end.
The kestrels, now much more mature but still home-bound, recently had a surprise visitor to their nesting box while their parents were away.
And though the visitor — a butterfly — was far from intimidating, she gave the little falcons quite the shock regardless.
Their reaction to seeing her is priceless:
The sudden appearance of the butterfly and her vividly colored wings clearly left quite the impression on the young bird, as did her ability to simply fly away. The creator of the videos above did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the kestrels’ ages, but they appear to be near fledgling age — meaning that likely one day soon, they’ll be able to take to the air, too.