Posted on 08/13/2011 3:56:45 PM PDT by EveningStar
Look for a House Wren. They don’t need much of a hole, and their nest is a web of little twigs. You can lways tell when this wren is in the area as it has a distinctive song that goes on and on and on and on ————LOL!
I once had a House Wren and A Chickadee vie for a Wren house. The Wren would go in with a twig and the Chickadee would go in after he came out and take the twig out! It was so funny to watch! The Chickadee finally won and raised 3 little ones. I was delighted to watch, when they left the nest.
Interesting when there is a raptor in the area. All of a sudden any birds on the feeder are totally motionless — not moving one bit of itself. And the whole yard is totally quiet. Most often it is a Cooper or Sharp-Shinned Hawk, but sometimes a Red-Tail. But for some reason the little birds seem to know when the Red Tail is not after them, as they will go about their business. Maybe they know the larger Hawk is not as quick as those other two much smaller ones.
One thing though: House wrens are also little monsters. They often do NOT tolerate other songbirds nesting in the area. They are infamous for sneaking up to other songbird nest and puncturing (with their sharp bill) the eggs that are laid therein.
Yes, it sounds gruesome, but apparently the strategy works: the other songbird nest will fail (or else they will move on) and the wren will have all the limited resources of your yard to itself.
I always tell people it's a bird-eat-bird world out there. If we really knew what went on behind the scenes, we'd be mortified! Lol!
"Males choose several prospective nesting cavities and place a few small twigs in each. Female inspects each, chooses one, and finishes the nest building"
That appears to be exactly what happened. Evidently the female didn't want to live in a condo community despite the attractiveness of it. Guess she wanted a pool and clubhouse too........LOL!
Thanks!
I've got Coopers, Red Tails, Sharp Shinned and Kestrels in my area..........This past spring there was even a Coopers hawk sitting on my deck railing surveying my bird feeders.
I don't see the Kestrels much anymore, the field where I used to see one on the telephone lines was developed and an urgent care hospital was built there.
There's still a wooded area behind it tho where deer live and I've been thinking of building a couple Kestrel nesting boxes and maybe climbing a couple of the trees along the tree line and hanging them......
And aside from the ‘bird eat bird’ factor, you have the daily fist-fights at the feeders. Not so much with the little darling 4 — Chickadees,Titmice,Nuthatches and Downies, but the House Finches are squabblers to the nth degree! They not only go after the others, but even amongst themselves, they are always at it!
It's not native to the East, but to the arid regions of the American West. At some point in the 1940s, it's assumed some petshop house finches in Long Island were released into the wild, where they thrived and multipled. From that original population, nearly the entire East has been colonized by the house finch -- for good or for bad.
Since I live in the original range of the house finch (the arid West) I see them all the time too and I definitely appreciate their hardiness. When I perform bird surveys in arid regions, sometimes the only birds I find are house finches (in addition to Gambel's quail, black-throated sparrows, cactus wrens, loggerhead shrikes, verdins, black-tailed gnatcatchers, and a few other hardy locals).
Maybe that's why your eastern house finches are so aggressive -- not being native, they have to be especially aggressive to compete.
Sadly, the population of eastern house finches seems to be declining, due to a terrible eye infection that has infected the population. Ornithologists in the East are keeping a close eye on this. Even though they're not native to your region, they are still a beautiful bird that doesn't seem to be doing any damage to your native bird populations.
It would be a shame to have them extirpated from the East. But at least they're still thriving in their homeland in the West!
Happy birding to ya!
Yes, hummingbirds are fearless!! I marvel at this as well as all their other features.
I would love to see a cardinal. They are nowhere near here, AFAIK.
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