nestlings – Go Retire Psychiatrist

Recall that the house finch nestlings were taken by a marauding crow yesterday. The house finch parents were frantic and devastated for about an hour. Although the crow flew by a second time, it didn’t return. The reason why was clear today. The nest is still in the tree but it’s obviously a wreck. We think it has been abandoned.

I checked on the cardinal nest and could find only one baby. He’s large and the younger, smaller brother is nowhere in sight.

The robins have not laid any eggs in the nest under our deck and it’s likely they’ve abandoned it.

Survival of the fittest seems to be the lesson here. Instinct is the driver, but it was hard not to think of the house finch parents, (especially the female) as grieving the loss of all their chicks.

The cardinal parents seem very annoyed when I pop around with my camera. Why not? Life is hard enough, with bad weather, crappy nest-building materials, unsafe locations, and predatory crows.

Annoyed up in a tree
Annoyed on the nest
Annoyed period

By the way, we saw a yellow warbler for the first time. I mistook it for a goldfinch at first. But then I saw the streaking on its belly and checked my field guide. Goldfinches have black wings and a black forehead patch. Yellow warbler males have orange streaks on their bellies. This one was probably picking bugs off the topmost tree leaves. It’s a male and making the most of its time on earth.

I was sitting at my desk by the front window where we often watch the house finches come and go from their nest. It was just a couple of days ago that 3 baby house finches were squirming about in the nest.

There are 3 house finch nestlings ( or I guess I should say there were)

I kept hearing a strange noise outside the window. It sounded like a large sheet blowing and flapping in the wind. I glanced a couple of times and didn’t see anything. About the 3^rd time I heard it, I caught sight of a huge crow (maybe a raven?) flapping its wings, which was the sound I evidently heard.

I grabbed my camera and tried to open the blinds but I was too late to get a snapshot of the giant crow pounding the juniper tree with its wings, jabbing its beak into the tree and then thundering off with a mouthful of nestlings. I’m pretty sure it got all of them.

I was stunned. A couple of minutes later, the house finch mama was flitting in a panic around the tree and in the nest, apparently searching for the newborns. It was a frantic scene which went on for over half an hour at least. She flew off and flew back repeatedly to what I assumed was an empty nest. There might have been an egg left because the crow returned to fly over the tree. But it didn’t stop.

I now believe that’s what happened to the missing cardinal egg and cardinal baby. My wife says she has seen a large crow swooping around our property. I wonder if that’s what spooked the robins who have probably abandoned the nest under our deck.

I took a quick look around the web and found that crows will eat eggs and nestlings, but it’s said to be an uncommon occurrence. It definitely happened in front of me and in the blink of an eye.

I don’t know what the house finches will do now. Will they try again? I doubt it will be in the same tree. Many of the branches are bent, exposing the nest where the thief broke in.

I’ll keep you posted.