Early last week our baby birds (I mentioned them with photos here) were poking their little heads up. They thought everyone that walked by the porch was their mama bringing them food. This was what they did when my son just pointed in their direction.
Two days later, they were so big they were stacking themselves on top of each other. They needed little birdie bunkbeds!
At the end of the week I was surprised that the mama was staying by the nest when we were outside. In the past, she had flown away anytime we came out of the house. When I got closer I saw that this was one of the babies! I took a few photos and that was the last time I saw any of them. When I looked later they had flown the coop (I had to say that). My son saw them fluttering with their mama in a nearby tree.The whole process from eggs to free-flying-birdies took less than a month. I wish I had written down the dates so I knew exactly how many days it took. I had to look it up and I found all kinds of interesting information here. By the way, it's 12-14 days for the eggs to hatch and 9-16 days before the babies leave the nest. It feels like my own kids are growing up just as fast!
Posts
Wow, I had no idea they grew up that fast! It made me a little heartsick to think of kids growing so fast *sniff* What kind of birds were they?
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for sharing the journey with us. The pictures are amazing!
ReplyDeleteIsn't it amazing how fast they mature? I love watching my Robins that come every year and I have an added bonus of 3 kittens to observe!!
ReplyDeleteYou got some great pictures! I know that was exciting for you all. Thanks for sharing with us.
ReplyDeleteHow fun. My daughter would have loved to watch that process. We've looked for nests around here but haven't found any that were low enough we could see. But we did have two baby bunnies living by our hosta plants.
ReplyDeletethanks for sharing this totally awesome experience with us!
ReplyDeleteah, they leave the nest so soon! I had a baby bird I fed because he fell out of the tree a few years ago, and he left pretty quickly too.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think the cardinals we had in our hedge right outside the pool were only in the nest after they hatched for about 10-12 days. I was fortunate enough to be out there for the flying lesson day and the next day - gone! Too wondrous to watch.
ReplyDeleteI love those pictures!! Thanks for sharing - I didn't realize they grew up so fast!!
ReplyDelete9 days seems like a pretty short period for something as big as a robin, but yeah, most songbirds are out by two weeks old, particularly in species where nest predation is high... even if they can't fly very well, it's still better to have them be able to scatter than to keep them in one place like a little birdie buffet.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I'll quit being a nerdy biologist for a moment, and say: Awww, cutie baby birds!