Birds and Nature

I believe that the nestling(s) being fed were just hatched today. This is a pairing of Black Phoebes nesting under a footbridge near Canon City, CO. This is the location where the first Black Phoebes were observed nesting and several nestings have occurred since then. Best viewed in full screen mode (click box in far right bottom) in order to see a little beak and part of a little head come up when parent leans over to feed. More videos and photos tomorrow. SeEtta

Though I would like to have been there when the baby bluebirds fledged I had to leave. When I returned a few hours later they were gone from the nest. After some searching I found them in the nest tree and trees nearby. Now I had to leave my ‘car blind’ and take my Canon 60d dslr camera (it also shoots these HD video clips) on a tripod to a location where I could see the bird through the trees. I spotted the baby bluebirds with my binoculars which I find very important when photographing birds as they provide better visual acuity than does any camera/camcorder viewfinder I have used. I was amazed that two of these baby bluebirds that had fledged within the past 4 hours had managed to fly to a tree over 50 feet away. There were at least 4 and possibly 5 fledglings and they kept the parent birds very busy flying to different locations in 3 trees to feed them. The video below is a short clip showing one of the bluebird babies grooming itself from where it was perched in the crook of a

The male Eastern Bluebird was a faithful parent that brought food about as often as the female while I was watching. As the nestlings grew older they would come up to the nest hole and open their beaks wide for feeding. SeEtta

The Eastern Bluebird nestlings became very impatient about waiting to be fed and would stick their heads out the nest hole looking for their parents. It wasn’t long before I would hear the parents calling to the nestlings to encourage them to ‘fledge‘ from the safety of their nest hole into the scary world outside. The video clip below shows one of the nestlings that is very near to leaving the nest–it is calling back to the calls of a parent bird as it climbs onto the edge of the nest hole. The male flies in and provides a quick meal though the nestling quickly starts calling again for more food. SeEtta