Location, Location, Location

Last week we noticed a pair of House Finches inspecting the beam over our front porch.  They flew on and off of it for several days, first at one end of the beam, then at the other.

We were rather hoping they wouldn't decide to build a nest there, but they ultimately did build one at the far end of the beam.

On The Nest

 We've had birds nest on that beam before, and to some extent it's a good choice for them; it's easily accessible, it's protected from the elements, it's concealed from the view of predators and the plastic spikes we've installed on top of the beam provide some real stability for the nest.  So for those reasons it's a good choice of location.

However, we put the spikes up there to discourage birds from nesting there several years ago after  Mourning Doves had nested there several times and proved themselves to be terrible bird parents.  They build flimsy nests  consisting of a few twigs thrown together on the beam and one time one of the parent doves turned around and swept its fledgling right off the beam onto the porch below.  We scooped that one up and made an emergency run to Project Wildlife, the wildlife rehabilitation center, because it looked to us like the chick had a broken leg.  So we put up the plastic spikes to discourage nesting.

That effort has been moderately successful; the Mourning Doves have stayed away, but we have had House Finches nest there occasionally since we put up the spikes.  They are much better bird parents and build substantial nests, carefully weaving the nesting materials around the plastic spikes to give it stability.  The problem is that they tend to be shy of humans and Mama bird will fly off the nest whenever we go in or out the front door.  They will also stay away from the nest if we decide to sit on our front porch in the evening.  Since we don't want to be responsible for the eggs not hatching, we tend to avoid using the front door or sitting on the porch.  They have an incubation period of 13 to 14 days and then about another week of feeding the chicks when they hatch.

It's fun to watch the chicks develop into fledglings and begin to try their wings, but it's a pain in the tush to avoid the front door for that long.  We'll do it, because we don't want to be bad neighbors, but we really hope they'll find a different location in the future.