Keep those photos coming in, folks. I have a fair few, but can always use more. (And don’t forget to include the Latin binomial.)
Reader Roger Sorensen sent some photos of birds feeding their offspring:
Here are some photos of birds tending to the noms for their young.Black-capped Chickadee, Poecile atricapillus. Over in the crabapple snag, Black-capped Chickadees were nesting. It was quite common to see caterpillars go in and fecal sacs go out.
Gray Catbird, Dumetella carolinensis. Early this past spring I began hearing the unmistakable call of the Gray Catbird, Dumetella carolinensis, in my back yard [JAC: you can hear their songs here.] Sure enough, I soon began spotting them darting about in the shrubs and woodpile. Eventually I tracked down the nest to a large burning bush (Euonymous sp.) next to my driveway. I would often spot one the other adults with mayflies and other less identifiable morsels. Later on, the fledglings would emerge from that tree shaking their wings (appetitive behavior) as the parents came back with the grub.
A hungry fledgling:
Nice work
The chickadee carrying the fecal sac out of the nest is an interesting sight. It’s produced by the chick and consists of a membrane to hold the feces so that the parent can more easily keep the nest clean. It’s a remarkable “invention”. It sure beats diapers.
Imagine eating your offspring’s sac as some birds do it seems!?!
🙁
But, humans are a unique species. Ever hear of an omelet?
Very nice! We love our chickadees and cat birds too.
Great pics! Nice to see another overlooked bird getting some attention. Most people have no idea what a catbird is (and they probably don’t remember the cartoon Cat-Dog, either) but they are quite beautiful with their grey and black, with a bit of rufous brown on their bums.
and how lucky to spot a chickadee nest! I’ve only seen one, unfortunately it was at my work, so I couldn’t keep much of and eye on it.
Very good! I love the recording of the catbird calls, as they produce a huge variety of chirps and glurks and tweets.
Lovely pics! And I didn’t know about faecal sacs before. Very cool.
When I have found catbird nests in the yard they are often in lilac clumps and adorned with scrapes of plastic.
Baby grackles make fecal sacs and the adults carry them off to be dumped in a pond, My wife and I painted a large deck a bluish/gray and by the next day it was the repository for numerous grackle offerings from the grackles living in the neighbors’ spruce trees.
I was gonna say, grackles prefer to drop their fecal sacs on our deck. Similarly, during mulberry season, they like to defecate over the same place. We mark the changing of the seasons by when the deck polka dots go from white blobs to large purple splashes.
🙂
Great captures of chickadee behavior!
And I love the catbird series–one of my favorite species. One year a male took up residence in a thick clump of brush in our backyard and sang lustily at night–such a treat!
And I love the way they’re often more curious than timid when you run across them.
All three of the US mimic thrushes are very cool, if you ask me. For non-birders, the other two are the Northern Mockingbird and the Brown Thrasher. Oh, and btw, they’re not thrushes. 😉 )