The baby birds' first flight
Leer en español.
This year I started the preparations for the nesting season by quickly cleaning the bird house. Nature organizations in Germany recommend doing this either in September/October, when the year's season is over, or in February/March, right before the next one starts. I chose the second option, and in the second week of February I took out the old nest and gave the inside of the house a quick sweep (all of this while wearing gloves to avoid getting the avian flu, hehe). This was my only intervention: the rest is up to the birds. Already in early March we could watch them inspecting the house. This is an interesting process that reminds me very much of a human couple searching for an apartment: you can see the birds flying around, entering the house, and lightly tapping the walls from the inside, probably to check if it's stable enough to raise their young there. Once the decision is made, they start to build the nest, which can take quite some time.
Of course I have no way of confirming it, but I like to think that the couple that nested in our house this year is the same as last year. Since these birds are monogamous, and, according to Wikipedia "few birds more readily accept the shelter of a nesting box; the same hole is returned to year after year, and when one pair dies another takes possession", this might well be the case.
In the video I managed to capture the first flight of one of the little siblings. We hope to have the honor of hosting their parents again next year.
Although I started this blog to write about plants, and particularly about medicinal plants, in time my definition pf "plant" has broadened to include "nature", which in general fascinates me anyway.
Since a few years ago, we have a bird house in our garden. We first bought a cheap-ish one at the supermarket and hung it from a tree. This first house was occupied in the spring of 2015 and of 2016, but got a bit damaged by the rain and winter weather. Even though we repainted the house, in spring 2017 we saw how the birds visited it but in the end decided not to build their nest there. Since that property was below their standards and expectations, we decided to invest in a "premium" house, and this one has been inhabited every spring since 2018. The first year, a family of Parus major, which in English have the common name "Great tit" (yes... that's how they are called) nested there, but in the last two years they were displaced by the smaller and more audacious Eurasian blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus), a really cute little bird with a yellow chest, a dark mask around the eyes, and gorgeous dashes of blue over its head and the wings. This species is very common in Europe, and it is quite used to living close to humans.
Since a few years ago, we have a bird house in our garden. We first bought a cheap-ish one at the supermarket and hung it from a tree. This first house was occupied in the spring of 2015 and of 2016, but got a bit damaged by the rain and winter weather. Even though we repainted the house, in spring 2017 we saw how the birds visited it but in the end decided not to build their nest there. Since that property was below their standards and expectations, we decided to invest in a "premium" house, and this one has been inhabited every spring since 2018. The first year, a family of Parus major, which in English have the common name "Great tit" (yes... that's how they are called) nested there, but in the last two years they were displaced by the smaller and more audacious Eurasian blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus), a really cute little bird with a yellow chest, a dark mask around the eyes, and gorgeous dashes of blue over its head and the wings. This species is very common in Europe, and it is quite used to living close to humans.
This year I started the preparations for the nesting season by quickly cleaning the bird house. Nature organizations in Germany recommend doing this either in September/October, when the year's season is over, or in February/March, right before the next one starts. I chose the second option, and in the second week of February I took out the old nest and gave the inside of the house a quick sweep (all of this while wearing gloves to avoid getting the avian flu, hehe). This was my only intervention: the rest is up to the birds. Already in early March we could watch them inspecting the house. This is an interesting process that reminds me very much of a human couple searching for an apartment: you can see the birds flying around, entering the house, and lightly tapping the walls from the inside, probably to check if it's stable enough to raise their young there. Once the decision is made, they start to build the nest, which can take quite some time.
Of course I have no way of confirming it, but I like to think that the couple that nested in our house this year is the same as last year. Since these birds are monogamous, and, according to Wikipedia "few birds more readily accept the shelter of a nesting box; the same hole is returned to year after year, and when one pair dies another takes possession", this might well be the case.
Since we can't monitor what happens inside the house, it is difficult to follow the next stage closely, but the female can lay over 10 eggs, which she incubates for about 15 days. We usually realize that the babies are born when we start hearing them, and because the feeding pace increases. As their kids grow, the poor parents don't get a free second: mom and dad must constantly fly in with worms or caterpillars; as time passes and their kids grow, the louder their demands for food get.
In previous years we always missed the moment when the birds left the nest. We just realized one day that the bird house was empty. This May 18, however (and perhaps the COVID-related confinement is to thank for this), we had the privilege of watching some of the baby birds getting out one by one and flying for the first time. The whole process took hours, and during this time the parents kept coming to feed those that were still inside. We even had a late bloomer that took its little head out but didn't dare to fly, so it ended staying in the house much longer than its siblings, all the time while being exclusively fed by the parents (who I think were also trying to encourage it to fly). This teenager ended up leaving the nest one day later.
In previous years we always missed the moment when the birds left the nest. We just realized one day that the bird house was empty. This May 18, however (and perhaps the COVID-related confinement is to thank for this), we had the privilege of watching some of the baby birds getting out one by one and flying for the first time. The whole process took hours, and during this time the parents kept coming to feed those that were still inside. We even had a late bloomer that took its little head out but didn't dare to fly, so it ended staying in the house much longer than its siblings, all the time while being exclusively fed by the parents (who I think were also trying to encourage it to fly). This teenager ended up leaving the nest one day later.
In the video I managed to capture the first flight of one of the little siblings. We hope to have the honor of hosting their parents again next year.
Comments
Post a Comment