Bird Watching

I spent a few minutes on our patio yesterday morning watching the House Wrens that built a nest in a birdhouse near our porch. They let me know right away that they didn't appreciate my company while they were feeding their babies, but I managed to capture some pictures with my zoom lens, without disturbing them too much. I hope you will click on the pictures to see the babies up close.

I couldn't tell how many there were ... all I could see was a little head poking out and a beak opening wide. It seems that the entree for the day was some kind of big, fat yellow caterpillar, and as soon as the mama (or daddy?) bird poked the worm in its mouth, the baby would disappear. I wish I knew where they were getting the worms from — probably from the plants in our backyard.

I was curious to know if just the mama bird was feeding the babies, or if the daddy bird was helping, so I turned to my blogging tool, Google, and found a few interesting facts about House Wrens:

• The House Wren is a common sight and sound in backyards across the country. Their rich bubbly songs are commonly heard during the nesting season but rarely afterwards.
• The little brown birds are feisty and combative considering their tiny size. They are known to occasionally destroy the eggs of other birds nesting in their territory by puncturing the eggshells, and they are also known to fill up other birds' nests within their territory with sticks to make them unusable.
• When a male House Wren claims a cavity for nesting, he begins building the nest with a variety of materials such as feathers, moss, hair, and trash. The male wren adds small sticks to the nest, and when he is done, the female inspects the nest. If she does not approve of the construction, she will throw any unwanted sticks to the ground. After this process, the female lines the nest.
• One of the most noticeable characteristics of House Wrens is that their tails are almost always cocked upward.

And to answer my question — both the mama and daddy birds feed the young, but their plumage is so similar I couldn't tell if it was just one bird I was photographing or both of them.

As I said at the beginning, the little wren was scolding me the entire time I was taking pictures, even though I was sitting at the patio table which is about 15 feet away from the birdhouse (thank goodness for my zoom lens!).

Fussing at me ...

At times, the wren looked as if he or she was even frowning at me ...

But in spite of all the chattering and scolding and frowning, I'm pleased with the pictures I captured which gave me a just a glimpse of all the hard work that goes into the care and feeding of their babies — and it went on all day! It would be interesting to know how many trips the birds made back and forth to the nest to feed the babies — it gives new meaning to that old expression "eats like a bird."

In this next picture you can barely see a little beak coming up ...

Open wide ...

Wider ...

Oh, it's so good, Mommy!

This time it's a fat caterpillar!

Chew it up good, little one ...

Another "frowny" face, as if to say, "Are YOU still here!"

I love this profile shot ...

And that's where I left the busy little wrens on that hot June morning, but I hope to capture more of their antics (and hard work!) when it's time for their babies' flying lessons.

To be continued ...

Building a Bird Nest 101

When you think of a bird's nest, you probably imagine a beautiful little work of art consisting of delicate twigs and vines and bits of moss diligently collected by the mama and daddy birds, tightly woven and neatly bound together to form a safe nest in which to raise their new babies ... right? Well, I've discovered that not all bird nests look like this one:

Some nests look like the busy little mama and daddy birds could have used a few lessons in nest-building before they started working on their nest. The little house wrens (I think) that built this nest on top of a column on our porch are a case in point. Just look at the results of all their hard work:

Is that not the messiest bird nest you've ever seen!

And they couldn't have picked a worst spot for it ... under our porch where we spend a lot of time (when it's not so hot).

This is the fourth time they've built a nest on top of that column. The first three nests either fell apart or were blown down, and they finally abandoned them. I thought they had learned a lesson, but I guess they thought they would give it one more try.

You've got to give them an A for effort and diligence, at least, but I don't think they'll ever get more than a C- for aesthetics, bless their little hearts.

If this nest holds together long enough for the wrens to have babies, I will keep you posted. However, having experienced the dubious pleasure of birds building a nest in a basket on my front door once, I have to admit that I have mixed emotions about them raising their babies above my rocking chair on the porch.