Birds Etc.
After a long winter, it is time to once again take in the beauty of nature.
The birds are busy building their nests and this year they have and added bonus of
Poodle hair to line them. It will be interesting in the Fall, at birdhouse clean out time,
to see how many have taken advantage of the fluffy liner.
The feeding stations are up and already we have diners. Take a stroll through Birds Etc.
and marvel at the jewels of nature.
The following are pictures of baby birds being raised by my sister after they were plucked out of their nest by another bird, possibly a starling or house sparrow. At this point the type of birds they are is unknown. As Barb can't destroy them, she will raise them even if they are house sparrows. Only time will tell what they are. Starlings and House Sparrows are not native birds and are actually extremely detrimental to our native song birds. They will enter other bird houses and snatch and kill baby birds and destroy eggs. One of these babies was obviously grabbed by it's head, near it's eye (photo 1) and the other by it's back (photo 2) as the beak marks show the damage. There are ways to "deter" house sparrows from using your nest boxes but rather than go into detail here, I'm going to give you a site that tells and shows the many ways to deter these non native birds from destroying the eggs and babies of our native species. Personally I don't believe in killing "anything" so I choose to deter the house sparrows. |
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| In the first 4 pictures, babies are under 3 days old as eyes are not open. The coin is the size of a quarter. Sadly one little guy didn't make it as it appeared he had too many internal injuries. | ||
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The last 4 pictures the babies are about 5-6 days old. Eyes have opened and feathers are getting more pronounced. They are both eating eagerly and starting to move around in their nest. They were given grass and clover to keep their legs from sliding. It's important to "not" keep baby birds on slick surfaces and to also provide a thick layer of nesting material so their tummies don't lay flat. This is the first time Barb is raising baby birds and is doing a great job! |
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| 8 days,starting to stand | 8 days eating well | 9 days |
| It is now quite obvious the babies are House Sparrows which are in the group of nuisance birds but there is no way Barb will destroy them. As animal lovers, we cannot destroy any creature, regardless of their reputation. | ||
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| 10 days, feathering out | 11 days, lot's of feathers! | 11 days new home with perch |
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| 11 days starting to perch | ||
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