Jul 7, 2011

Babies Galore

As you may have gathered from my post a few days ago, the cardinals have started fledging and it has been a three ring circus around the feeder.

As close as I can tell, I have three sets of juvenile cardinals coming to the feeder. There are some that have most of their real feathers in and look like mini adult females. Juveniles all look like females until they are older. The males in this group still are mostly brown but showing more red than the other groups. Then I have a set that still have downy tufts where their crests will be. The last group have more bits of down around the wings as well as the head. This last group depends on their mom and dad to crack the seeds for them rather than helping themselves.

Two juveniles that are different ages.

It has been entertaining seeing them come and go both as families and individuals. But now we also have a new visitor. A mother Carolina Wren has made a nest in our garage and has started to fill it with eggs. I accidentally found the nest, but it appears she has not abandoned it. It also appears she is still laying her clutch as she has been coming to the feeder daily for food. I look forward to seeing her little fledglings too.

Carolina Wren storing up her energy for the babies soon to come.

~Jessica~

1 comment:

Al said...

Great pictures. I love the birthing season.