We Have Finches on Our Balcony

[dawn_felagund]

About a month ago, I noticed that a pair of house finches were showing some interest in our hanging basket of snapdragons. I noticed a lot of fluttering in and out and knew what that meant

Comments

[frenchpony]

How utterly adorable! How wonderful to get a bird's nest right in your very own flowers and then get to watch the babies grow up. . .take more of those pictures, because this is something you'll always want to remember.

(And when uppity people ask you when you are going to have kids, you can whip out these pictures and explain that you already have them.)

[dawn_felagund]

*snickers* Good idea! I'll have to get wallet-sized pictures of the little guy perched on the lantern.

I watched a lot of babies growing up when I was a kid and we'd frequently get birds--mostly robins--in the low evergreen right outside our garage window. But there was a difference between crawling through the tree and being able to lift the basket and nest down to camera-level!

Now that they look more like little birds and less like fuzzy, bug-eyed things, I want to look at them constantly. Unfortunately, I don't think that Mum- and Dad-bird would like that. But the little guy hopping around on the balcony obliged me nicely with that one. Now I can see him whenever I want. And hold him too, under the excuse of having Bobby take pictures of him. ;)

[dawn_felagund]

Hehe...you're mean, Nienna! :^P

(Also kidding!)

It has been fun! The first thing I this morning was check on the little guy on the balcony, and he was hopping around and chirping like crazy!

[dawn_felagund]

In the last nest picture, the little guy on the far right makes me *squee* every time! I think that one will be little Finarfin. ;)

(Of course the hulking, loud one is Feanor!)

[rhapsody11]

You know, I just learnt what Snapdragons are hehehe. I think I have them as well in my garden.

Anyhow: cuteeeeeeeeeee!!! We have a full colony living in our gutter, so very early in the morning Kevin drinks his bottle accompanied by songbirds ;) Btw as I was reading, I wondered if the Cuckoo would wriggle the others out of the nest (which is usual), but it looks like it happened the other way around. :c) Thanks for sharing!

[dawn_felagund]

I love snapdragons! They're beautiful flowers and even I can't seem to kill them! :^P

(Nor can the little family that moved in...even with mounds of bird poop.)

I love little birds! We used to get nests of them all the time when I was a kid, so I grew up having my mom lift me up to see the baby robins in the nest. I'm kind of hoping that our little finches like where they live now and might come back next year....

And you icon! *squees* It's precious!

[rhapsody11]

*huggles her duckies* I wuv duckies and now we have a duck pair in our back garden. What the heck they are doing there, we have no clue. It's also quite strange to be greeted by them the moment you leave your house, but for some reason, they like it with us.

Anyhow, my dad is a pidgeon keeper, so I am used to those lil'and ugly birdies. They become more cuter when they get feathers and hungry and... *grin*

[enismirdal]

Oh wow! I've never seen a nest with an "adopted" baby before - that's really cute, and I'm so glad the finch babies were able to survive too! Do you think the adopted one might be a brown-headed cowbird? I don't know anything about American bird-life, really, but we studied cowbirds a bit in our Behavioural Ecology lectures. I seem to remember those ones let the other chicks live, because the parents will work harder for three open mouths than for one, and so the baby cowbird actually gets more food if it lets the other chicks beg as well!

The baby is very sweet - he seems to have got the hang of perching beautifully! It's so fantastic that you've been able to watch the whole thing. :)

Also - yay snapdragons!!

[dawn_felagund]

I will have to look into the cowbirds! I seem to remember also learning about them, though I'm not sure if they're native or not to our area. But it seems as good a place to start as any.

I was a bit surprised that little Feanor (the adopted one because he's big and pushy!) perches so well at eleven days. But then, I don't really know anything at all about birds; my interest was always the very feminine subject of entomology. ;)