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So I have this large pothos on my boyfriend's back porch. It's a houseplant, but I take it outside in the warmer months. I noticed it was looking sort of strangely shaped near its base, and upon investigation discovered that a bird had made a nest in there. I thought birds only nested in trees! Apparently I know nothing.   Seemed like the bird was going in and out randomly, and I don't know much about birds, but I figured if there was a nest, there would eventually be eggs. Sure enough.  Wow. 7 eggs. The nest is small (hard to see scale from the image) and the bird that I would see hopping in and out was pretty small too, but I had no clue what type. My daughter is an avian enthusiast, so i sent her pics of the nest, the eggs, and then finally a really fuzzy pic of the bird that I snuck up on. I don't know how much detail you can make out, but there was enough apparently for my kid to immediately identify the bird as a Carolina Wren.  Apparently that many eggs is typical for that type of bird. The eggs were laid over several days. After a while, she started spending most of her time in the nest. Incubation stage I guess. The plant/nest is right by the back door, so it was freaking her out for a while every time we went in or out. But then after she laid her full clutch, I guess she either got more used to us, or she became more protective, or maybe both, but she stopped flying away every time there was activity in and out of the door. My kid says that they typically incubate the eggs for 12 - 16 days. So by next week sometime there will be babies. My biggest concern is my boyfriend's cat. She's an avid hunter, and when those babies fledge I don't know how to keep them safe. I guess we'll just try and keep the cat fully inside till all the babies are gone. Gonna be a drag, but I just can't have dead baby birds on my conscience. Amberlyn fucked around with this message at 13:49 on Jun 13, 2017 |
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Jun 13, 2017 13:34
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| # ? Apr 24, 2024 06:29 |
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Keep in mind birds are really fragile. They survive in the wild by having lots of babies so statistically they won't all die. I don't think there is much you can do to protect them from natural predators. Maybe a fence/temporary mesh around the area can help, but don't count on it. Is it just one bird on the nest or are they two parents? Do keep us updated on the nest, the chicks, and the noise!
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Jun 13, 2017 14:29
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nielsm posted:Keep in mind birds are really fragile. They survive in the wild by having lots of babies so statistically they won't all die. I don't think there is much you can do to protect them from natural predators. Maybe a fence/temporary mesh around the area can help, but don't count on it. Yeah, I get it about the predator thing, and there's not a drat thing I can do about that. But because I don't consider my boyfriend's cat a "natural" predator I'm gonna do what I can to keep her contained while the babies are fledging. As far as I can tell, it's just one bird. It's the Mama/female who incubates the eggs, right, at least in this species? I know there are some species who continue to pair up beyond the egg laying, but I haven't seen any other bird feeding her while she's in the nest, and or just generally being around. And as far as I can tell, it looks like she's the only one incubating. I'm not at the house every day, so my observation is somewhat choppy. But I pay close attention when I am there, and it looks like just the one bird. You can be sure I'll update. I'm nerding out a bit with all this. It's interesting..well, fascinating really. And kinda exciting too! Amberlyn fucked around with this message at 15:24 on Jun 13, 2017 |
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Jun 13, 2017 15:03
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Certainly looks like a carolina wren, and like one of their nests. Wrens are well known for nesting in and around human structures. Enjoy your chirpy little brown bird. As for the one bird thing, carolina wrens usually do mate for life and are monogamous, so if it's just the one wren then its mate is most likely dead.
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Jun 13, 2017 16:56
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Yeah I've seen some nests in weird places. Saw a bird building one under the roof of a bus stop I was waiting under last week. Once the babies leave the nest and it's fulfilled its duty do birds usually return to the same spot if it's a good one?
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Jun 13, 2017 20:43
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Oh, how cute!!! Thank you for posting and yes please do keep us updated 
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Jun 14, 2017 02:02
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birds posted:Once the babies leave the nest and it's fulfilled its duty do birds usually return to the same spot if it's a good one? Tends to depend on the species. Some searching didn't turn up anything one way or another about wrens, but it probably depends on if this is indeed a single wren parent (its mate most likely died) and whether it will move in with another wren's territory or if a new mate will take over its. Wrens aren't flocking birds and can be fairly territorial, so an established wren will usually stay in a given area if it's doing well there. It's mainly larger birds, like hawks, eagles, and owls that tend to reuse nests year after year if it's a good area.
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Jun 14, 2017 03:54
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Cythereal posted:Tends to depend on the species. Some searching didn't turn up anything one way or another about wrens, but it probably depends on if this is indeed a single wren parent (its mate most likely died) and whether it will move in with another wren's territory or if a new mate will take over its. Wrens aren't flocking birds and can be fairly territorial, so an established wren will usually stay in a given area if it's doing well there. There was a robin family in my daughter's backyard that decided to make a nest in her kids' little playhouse out back. Not only did they hatch a sweet little brood of babies, they came back a second time and used the nest again! It was pretty cool. What my bird-nerd kid told me is Robins might use a nest twice, but typically not any more than that, because the nest is pretty nasty after two hatchings.  The pink coloring in this one is the sun shining through the red plastic of the playhouse.  One of the fledglings  Feeding time  
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Jun 14, 2017 12:29
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Cythereal posted:...... carolina wrens usually do mate for life and are monogamous, so if it's just the one wren then its mate is most likely dead. Not necessarily, apparently. http://www.animalspot.net/carolina-wren.html The female is the one who does the incubating, so other than feeding the female here and there, the male's presence isn't going to be obvious. After the babies are born, both parents feed the young birds so that's when I'd expect to see lots more of the male/both of them attending to the young. If I continue to see only one bird, then the obvious conclusion at that point would be that the male is dead.
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Jun 15, 2017 14:10
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Awwwww. Babies. Picture taken on Sunday. She flew out of the nest when I approached it to see if there was any progress. Until I'm actually looming over the thing, I can't see if Mama bird is in there or not, so we scare the poo poo out of each other when I finally do get close enough! Anyway, I just took this one shot, because she was across the porch yelling at me the whole time and I didn't want to keep her away from her babies any longer than necessary. I'm heading over to my BF's house tonight for dinner, so I'll see if I can get a head count then. 
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Jun 20, 2017 14:50
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I love birds but man are their babies ugly.
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Jun 20, 2017 20:47
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birds posted:I love birds but man are their babies ugly. I am currently huffing my bird friend and agree with this statement.
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Jun 21, 2017 04:03
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This is an incredible photograph.
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Jun 21, 2017 11:43
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The eggs hatched and babies born. But weird thing is that there are only two babies, and one unhatched egg! I don'g get it. The nest isn't very accessible, at least to ground predators like cats and such. Anyway, pics. Just fluff  Untitled Aliens  Untitled They look like birds now  Untitled UntitledAs far as I can figure, they're going to fledge mid week. There are strict instructions in place to not let the cat out when that happens!!
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Jun 26, 2017 13:44
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Oh man little birds!
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Jun 27, 2017 15:12
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Haha. Amazing
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Jun 27, 2017 17:43
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What happened with them in the end?
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Jul 20, 2017 12:56
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Totally forgot about this thread till now. They did fledge, the cat didn't get them, they hopped around the back porch with Mom (or Dad?) for a while, ended up under the long hedge that separates the houses, and then I guess they flew away because I didn't see them any more. At least that's what I'm telling myself, because any other ending makes me sad. Now I have this big ball of used nest in my plant. I left it there for a while, because my daughter said that birds will sometimes come back and use the nest a second time. But there wasn't any more activity. So when I bring my porch plants in for the winter, I'll just remove the nest I guess, and see what happens next year when I put the plant back out there in the same place it always goes for the summer.
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Aug 13, 2017 12:39
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| # ? Apr 24, 2024 06:29 |
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Did the fledglings look like wrens? It's a bit hard to tell from the picture of the eggs, but it looks like there are 2 cowbird eggs with the wren eggs. I could be wrong as it's hard to tell for sure given the picture quality, but cowbirds do use Carolina wrens as hosts. If so, they likely would have evicted the eggs or just hatched wrens.
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Aug 13, 2017 14:43
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