Baby Birds

This summer I was blessed to be able to witness the miracle of birth on our front porch. In July I noticed a bird would fly out of a flower box on the front porch railing nearly every time I went out the door. It would fly to a nearby tree and chirp at me. Eventually I got curious enough to investigate further to see what was so interesting in there and I found this adorable nest with three eggs in it.

I immediately took pictures and posted them on Facebook. A friend told me these were snowbirds or Junco birds and when they hatched they would be in the nest for two weeks. She was right. They left the nest two days before the two weeks was up. I believe.

I was so excited that I was going to be able to witness this. I checked on the nest once a day, not touching anything, being careful to make sure the leaves covered the nest back up and trying not to stress the mother. During the two weeks I realized that there were two adult birds watching the nest. This was one of them, I had trouble getting pictures of the adults because they would hide up in this tree.

One Saturday morning I peeked in and realized one of the babies had been born. It was pink, the skin translucent and the eyes were not opened yet. The remnants of the egg was gone so I imagine the mother moved it far away so predators would not find the nest and so the baby would not injure itself on the rough edges. Of course after that I had to check the nest several times and during the course of the day all three eggs hatched.

When I would peek in they would open their little mouths if they were awake. I could see the parents bringing them crickets and other bugs to eat. I set out some bird seed but they did not seem particularly interested in it, although the parents had eaten it during the winter time.

The birds soon started to have their feathers fill out and look more like feathers than fluff and then their eyes opened. They snuggled together and would look at me with interest and no fear at all. They slept quite a lot and seemed to be very content in the nest which they were quickly outgrowing.

The problem with me putting out birdseed was that it attracted the blue jays who became very interested in what was going on in our front yard. They harassed the parents. I would hear them chirping and would go investigate, nervous that a neighbourhood cat had found them, and the blue jays would be in the tree in the front yard taunting the parents. I was very careful not to look anywhere near the nest when they were around. I looked it up on google and it is thought that blue jays might eat baby birds and eggs so it made me nervous.

I really enjoyed this experience and the morning I went out to find they had left the nest I was very disappointed. I really wish I had seen them learning to fly but I will have to be content with the little miracle I received being able to watch them the first two weeks of their lives. I’ve been so blessed.