The Nest Itself

We took the House Finch nest down from the beam over our front porch Friday morning.  The last two fledgling birds flew off on Monday morning, so there was no reason for the nest itself to stay up there; if these same parents or other finches decide to have a nest there, they will construct a new one.

Good thing, too--the growing baby birds don't wear diapers, so the inside of the nest is pretty well coated with bird poop by the time they fly off.

I was curious about the construction of the nest, so I told Cindy I wanted a picture of it before it went into the trash.

House Finch Nest

This shot is of the underside of the nest.  It looks like the birds used twigs and Asparagus Fern to tie the nest together and probably to anchor it to the plastic bird spikes on the beam, and used dead leaves as cushioning for the eggs and nestlings.

We were never quite sure exactly how many eggs and birds were in the nest; we didn't want to disturb the birds any more than was necessary and even when Cindy climbed up to replace the nestling that had fallen out she did it so quickly that she didn't stop to count the number of chicks in the nest.  In any case, the nest was big enough to accommodate them and kept them safe until they could fly.