Thursday, June 1, 2006

Nesting Birds

Last week I heard a Flycatcher on the dead tree outside our breakfast window. With my binoculars I saw it was a Great-crested Flycatcher. We've had flycatchers nesting in our woods for years. In AL we had them nest in a box right outside one of our bedroom windows and we became very familiar with it's nesting behavior and calls.

An interesting fact is that Great-crested Flycatchers build their nest and then add a strip of shiny plastic or a snakeskin which they may even leave trailing out the hole. Seems to me that's an announcement to predators.

At one of the bird boxes we have in the back, there was some snakeskin lying on the ground. It wasn't "fresh" since it was a bit wrinkled and worn, so I can only assume it had come from the birdhouse above it. Maybe somebody had cleared it out to build a nest of their own.

Not all nesting stories are successful. There was a finch nest on the front porch and after the birds were gone I took it down to clean it and found a dead juvenile in it. You can see the bird in the nest and also some new nesting material that was added to the original nest. Very odd.

This bird was definitely old enough to be flying about, but something must have happened. Maybe it wouldn't leave the nest and starved. If you have any ideas, please give me your thoughts via the comment area below.

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