Backyard Baby Birds

This is just a quick update on the status of new baby birds in our yard.

Bluejays  I had reported earlier about sighting a bluejay nest early in the spring.  Several weeks ago we saw three blue jays together in the trees.  Two of them were making quite a racket, hence the reason for noticing them at all.  The third was bouncing up and down on a branch like someone at the end of a diving board.  He finally took off and flew just fine, but landed only a few feet away on another branch.  Although I would not have been able to tell from his size or appearance, I am sure he was a new blue jay learning to fly.

White-winged doves  We had been watching the white winged dove on the nest above my car for many weeks, but had not seen any evidence of baby birds.  Then suddenly about 10 days ago we saw the two adults on the ground looking for food.  It was not obvious there was anything in the nest.  Our first thought was that something had happened and no birds had hatched.  However, several days later we saw two smaller doves huddled together in the tree.  They then progressed to flying short distances in the bushes or flying between branches above the patio roof.  Again, they looked exactly like mature white-winged doves, although they were smaller than the adults when we saw them together.  Apparently they had been in the nest but we could not see them from our vantage point below.

Downy woodpeckers  We have frequently had Downy woodpeckers, both male and female, on the feeder this spring.  One day several weeks ago I saw two of them on the feeder at the same time, but one of them was acting strangely.  I then realized he was a bit unsure of how to hang on and was not actually get the nuts out of the feeder, he was next to the other bird with his mouth open.  Yep, he had to be a baby Downy woodpecker.  

Wrens  At about the same time as all of these other sightings we saw at least three wrens on the ground in the backyard.  They all looked the same size, but at least one was doing the "open mouth, I want food" routine so was obviously a little one.  However, these were not "our" wrens from our birdhouse.

There was very little activity in and out of the birdhouse for sometime and we weren't sure what was going on.  Then suddenly we saw the adults carrying food into the house.  If we put meal worms into the feeder, the adults were there within minutes and kept going back and forth carrying worms until they emptied the feeder.

I got a few pictures of the birds going into and out of the house by putting the GoPro on the fence, but the birds had become very fast ducking into and out of the house.  I never could quite figure out the right compromise between high resolution (so I could zoom in to see the small birds) or higher frames per second (so I could see them as they came and went).  I will go through that footage and try to find something useable even if it is only a couple of still shots, but that will be another day. 

GoPro on the fence.  The top of the bird house is just barely visible beyond the camera.

At first we were putting out worms once a day and the original container of meal worms lasted for some time.  However, once the parents started feeding the little ones, it became obvious they wanted more  We then began putting out food three times a day, but we quickly ran out of worms.  After going through the second container of 500 worms, we asked about a larger container.  There are only two sizes of meal worms that Wild Birds Unlimited sells, 500 worms and 10,000 worms.  Ok, 10,000 worms it is.

I did not think to get a picture of the worms in their original packaging.  The 10,000 worms were in a large (16" long by 8" diameter) mesh bag, although very little of that volume was worms.  Most of the bag retained its shape due to large amounts of wadded paper.  The worms were contained within the folds or wads of paper.  I got the worms on Tuesday afternoon and transferred all of them into a plastic shoebox on Wednesday morning.  They filled the box to a depth of about an inch.  Smooth plastic is important so they cannot climb out, although they are in the refrigerator and therefore are dormant.  The Frog drilled holes in the lid for air.

10,000 meal worms in a plastic shoe box

The parents were still ferrying worms to the house on Wednesday, but were barely sticking their heads into the house.  The little birds must have been coming to the opening to get the food.  We could hear their cheeping, but we could not see them.  By the time I got home from school late on Thursday, the adults were still ferrying worms, but not to the house.  Sometime on Thursday the babies had apparently left the nest.

My first thought was "Oh great.  Now that we have a shoebox full of meal worms, the wrens will no longer need them."  Not to worry.  On Friday morning I saw at least three and possibly four little ones huddled together in the yaupon holly in the front of the house.  The adults were continuing to carry the meal worms to the little ones from the feeder in the backyard. In addition, the "other family" of wrens, including the little ones, all visit the meal worm feeder.  Finally, there is at least one female cardinal eating them as well.  We are putting out worms three times a day (maybe a 1/4 cup at a time) and there are lots of birds taking advantage of them.  Often the wrens are on the feeder before we can get back into the house.  I don't know how long this will last, but things are going well so far, despite the daily thunderstorms.