The Babies Left Home
In early April, two Finches made a nest in a wreath hanging on one of the front doors of our home. We have glass panes on each door so I can see the nest. When I got too close to the door, the Finches were spooked, so I taped a bandana to the glass section behind their nest. The fix worked. I could see through the bandana, but the birds couldn’t see me.
A few days later, the parents sat on the nest all day. I figured that eggs had been laid. At dawn on April 10th, I noticed the mother bird return to the nest and saw what turned out to be four chicks with their mouths open, begging for food.
This routine continued for the next ten days. One of the parents would sit on top of the babies during the night to keep them warm. As soon as daybreak came, off they went to eat. The parents would return three times during the day (I noticed), generally within two hours of leaving the nest in the morning, early in the afternoon, and then at dusk. Each time the chicks would get excited and start chirping for a share of the food (regurgitated seeds).
During the next week, the chicks grew rapidly. They grew downy feathers which were replaced with real feathers. All the chicks were about the same size, and they were getting too large for the mother to sit on them at night, so they huddled together to keep each other warm.
Between April 19th and April 24th, they started to look like adult finches, just smaller. I wondered how they would learn to fly. Would the parent tweet some command to get them out of the next? Would they push them out?
The parents came to the nest on the morning of April 25th at dawn. I could hear the babies chirping for food from my office. It was just past light, and all four rowdy chicks had their necks craned, begging for food. It looked like the next day; the chicks would be out of the nest. In the past few days, they had been flapping their wings while perched on the edge of the nest, building strength.
At 11 AM, I checked the nest; all of them were gone save one. The poor little fellow perched on the edge of the nest, working up the courage to fly.
My wife and I went on a walk. When we returned, I checked on the remaining baby and startled him. This close encounter motivated him to fly. He only managed to go 25 feet around the side of our house and hid under a bush. I went over to look for him, and he flew back on our front porch, tried to land in the nest, but ended up sitting near one of our chairs on our front porch. When I walked over to get closer, he flew again, this time farther around the other side of the house and lit beneath another bush.
I decided to leave him alone after that. A few hours later, I looked to see if he was still under the bush. He was gone.
Did the parents squawk something to tell the chicks to escape the nest? Did they realize they could fly? I’m disappointed that I didn’t see all of them leave.
Imagine, they went from being unborn eggs to flying in 15 days. The world is full of tiny miracles.