Finches Leave The Nest

We think the second of the four House Finch fledglings left the nest this morning; the first one seems to have left yesterday afternoon.  There were only two heads visible in the nest this morning when Mama bird was feeding them, and they both look like they still have some growing to do.

Old House Finch Nest

This photo is from a nest from two years ago.  The House Finches love this location on the beam that runs above our front porch because it's close to the birdseed feeder and the fountain in the back yard, and it's well protected from predators.

We had some Mourning Doves nesting there years ago.  They were not very good parents; they would just throw a few twigs on the beam and call it a nest, and one day one of the parents turned around and its tail feathers swept the chick right off the beam.  So we decided to discourage them from coming back by installing some plastic spikes along the top of the beam.  That seemed to work--they kept coming back for a while, but apparently couldn't figure out the spikes.  My stern lecture to one of the doves sitting on the porch railing about the need for them to be better parents if they chose to nest there again may also have influenced their decision to go elsewhere ("The neighbors are crazy people, Gladys, they talk to birds, we'd better go somewhere else.")

The House Finches are a different story, though.  Far from discouraging them from nesting there, the plastic spikes provided them with a means to secure their nest by weaving their twigs, pine needles and Asparagus Fern in and around the spikes for better protection and stability.

They are very good parents, with both parents maintaining a regular feeding schedule for all their chicks.  They stick fairly close to the chicks for a while after they leave the nest, apparently teaching them how to navigate the big world.  Several years ago we saw a mother House Finch trying to show her chick how to get seed from the feeder.  Junior wanted Mama to keep feeding him, but she apparently felt it was time for him to move on.  http://plantagarden-itllgrowonyou.blogspot.com/2014/07/mama-bird-and-junior.html.