Birds in New Jersey 2017
30 April 2017
House Sparrow nest - it seems quiet. Let's have a look inside.
Lots of nesting material: the usual house sparrow assemblage of trash (torn bits of plastic) and natural insulation (dried grass and feathers).
And, here they are. Three of the four eggs have hatched.
And they're ready to be fed. Their peeping is very, very quiet.
Now that there's little babies inside, time to repair the roof. A plastic lid, topped by two pieces of wood, to keep the rain out.
2 May 2017: The fourth egg hatched, a day or two after the others. The fourth little one is noticeably smaller.
Something is amiss: the little one is not begging for food with the others.
3 May 2017: The fourth baby is no longer visible.
This photo and the next photo show how much they move about: note the position of the small white ring of material at lower left. Here, a yellow beak is directly underneath the white ring. All the beaks are pointing in different directions.
Here, the babies have all moved their heads to be at about the same place in the nest.
They are growing fast. Already, proto-feathers, black in colour, are appearing.
Closeup of one of the three babies
4 May 2017. A day later. No sign of number four.
5 May 2017
6 May 2017
7 May 2017
8 May 2017
9 May 2017
10 May 2017
11 May 2017
As they got closer to fledging time, the nest was left alone. A little female seemed to remain alone in the nest on 18 May, still getting fed by Mrs. House Sparrow.
A short time later, the little bird was seen in the bushes just outside the nest box. She had fledged! After lots of preening, she was fed her first meal outside of her home by her dad.
Another nestbox story is unfolding at the same time: chickadee nest >>
Skip ahead to June; six baby chickadees, and a new house sparrow family is started >>