I now have four-count-’em-FOUR nests to update you on! (Of course my plan was to have twenty or so, but hey, I’ll take what I can get.)
New nestlings! Read on for more. Photo by M. LaBarbera.
Giant nest update: unhatched eggs, new nests
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Tag Archives: birds
Nest update: OLLA’s fledgling(s)
I stayed away from OLLA’s nest for several days, as I promised, so as not to scare the chicks into fledging early; but finally I just had to know if they had fledged yet. As I approached the nest both OLLA and ALGE scolded me—but the nest was empty. I looked around to see why they were angry at me and caught sight of a fledgling in a nearby tree: BABY! I didn’t see BABY’s siblings, but there were lots of trees around, and fledglings can be cryptic if they stay still. BABY was the smallest of the three so if she is fledged and okay, it’s very likely that YAYN and MAYO are doing well too.
YAYN or BABY, from before she fledged.
What do birds see?
Another great question from James:
When certain birds (not owls) look out at you from their left eye, they can’t see you with their right eye on the other side of its head. So what do birds with eyes on both sides of the head actually see? Two different scenes? Or some sort of panorama distillation?
What does LAGG see?
What to do if you find a baby bird; plus, baby Steller’s Jay
Recently I’ve noticed that people are being referred to Tough Little Birds by searching things like “what to do when junco chicks fall out of the nest”—and, of course, finding this blog totally unhelpful. Whoops! I’m fixing that now.
Primary-colored bycatch
The most colorful of last trip’s bycatch…
Male Cassin’s Finch:
[with Hillary] What’s happening?
Disheveled bycatch
I’m getting behind on my bycatch posts! These birds were all accidentally caught on the last trip, not the current one.
Mountain Chickadee:
I’m so angry at you that my wing and my tail are becoming one! This is my superpower!
The happy couple– er, trio
A few days ago, we had a very good day: we caught two females! This brings our total banded females up to… five. Females are elusive.
ABBY
The two females we caught aren’t interesting only for their sex, however.
Nest update: OLLA’s chicks!
Remember how OLLA and ALGE had three eggs? They’re not eggs any more!
YAYN (left) and BABY, in my hat
SOMA, MANI, & NOLA: funny-colored juncos
Color abnormalities don’t seem to be very unusual in juncos. There is a junco who sings outside my work building who has white splotches all over him! None of the juncos we’ve caught have been that extreme, but we have found a few with unusual spots of color on them.
SOMA has a white spot above his right eye:
SOMA
Nests and eggs!
We found nests! And they have eggs in them!
The first nest we found belongs to OLLA (female) and ALGE (male). Or, we assume it belongs to ALGE too, since he and OLLA are mates; only genetic testing can tell us if the eventual chicks are really his.
Mom OLLA
Tough Little Birds 