We put the bunting up for Flag Day.
We were careful not to disturb the resident in the corner. The bird was still laying her daily egg, and so not sitting on the nest keeping them warm. Photos could be taken.
It’s a phoebe’s nest.
The goat boys ARE useful! She lined the nest with their soft fur. I think that this is the prettiest nest that I’ve ever seen.
The eggs are so tiny. I set a penny in for you to have an idea of their size. This didn’t bother the phoebe. Later in the day, she came back and laid another egg. There are now six eggs and she’s setting.
I don’t let wild birds nest in the coops (or my deck!) but high on the front porch is fine with me, and it’s a safe place for her. Phoebes eat insects. I’m happy to have her in residence. I’ve read that the phoebe reuses her nest year after year. I’m sure she’ll be refreshing it with goat hair each season. The boys have plenty to offer!
Beautiful nest. We have 3 different Wagtails/Pipits in UK, Pied, Yellow and Grey they really bounce their tail up and down…..What is Flag Day ?…….:)
Jan…Flag Day celebrates the adoption of the flag of the United States which happened June 14, 1777….It is also my birthday..that is why I know…LOL!!!!
We have a robin’s nest in a crook of a building support that has been used several times each summer for the past 3 years. It just gets bigger (taller) every time as each nesting pair adds to the nest. We keep meaning to remove it (mites!) but then forget….It has already been used once this year, so maybe we will get to it this weekend. The nesting robins get used (each time) to our comings and goings and tend to ignore us. And just this morning we watched what I now think are phoebes out in the planter boxes near our front door. They have been taking turns investigation our light fixtures (by the door) as potential nest sites (I think).They are very loud! We didn’t know what sort of bird they were – but they sing loudly outside our bedroom window very early in the morning. Erk!
What a pretty little nest. I’m sorry I didn’t know what a Phoebe was, I had to look it up I thought it was a rabbit!!
That would have been reason to put out the flags – if she’d started to lay eggs.
Phoebe (birds) seems to come in a range of colours – which one do you have?
:)
You are right..that nest looks like one in a nature book!
I love the call phoebe’s make. I have been keeping an eye on a robin’s nest in the eaves of my log cabin home. I watched the birds build the nest right from the beginning. So interesting! I tried to help by scattering the bushes below with scraps of different colored yarn, but there wasn’t any interest. They preferred the long grasses and moss. The babies have hatched and poke their little heads above the nest waiting for parents to come feed them. They are still very silent, but being almost 10 days old should begin peeping soon. Nature!
May I ask “What is a Phoebe?” . I have never heard of them! Before you put the penny there I thought they were chicken eggs, very interesting..
There’s a live link in the blogpost on the word “phoebe.” That takes you to my favorite bird resource – the Cornell Ornithology Lab.
I see you have your porch painted “haight blue” which Howard Garrett(gardening expert here) swears keeps wasps from building nests. We have all sorts of those here and constantly picking off the nests. I don’t think we have Phoebe here in Texas tho.
Shoulda been haint blue
That spell check… around here it’s not called “haint” blue (I think that’s more a southern term) but the lore is that it’s supposed to repel insects. I don’t notice that it does, but it’s so pretty.
We have Song Sparrows nesting in a little bush by our back porch. They are return nesters. We feed meal worms in a little dish on the front porch. We are careful because the nest is so close to the ground out back. Try to minimize our being out there. The Sparrow parents join us on the front porch to get the worms then go back to the nest. I always check on the birds before I turn in for the night. Last evening after midnight I looked out and there was a cat by the bush. A couple of loud knocks on the window sent it packing. Hoping for a good outcome, but Mother Nature is in charge. Very hot here In TN….been in the 90’s for a week plus. Looking ahead it will be like this for another week or more. Way to early for this kind of heat…..yuck!
Ha Ha Ha. Guess when I told my husband last month that I thought I saw a Junco in the bushes (should have been long gone north) what I probably saw was a Phoebe. *shakes head laughing*
We have a bird house hanging from the eaves of our front porch that my son made from a kit when he was small. He insisted that it be hung on the porch despite our arguments that it would be seen and used more quickly out in the yard by or in the trees. My son is 20 now and every single year we have gotten at least one if not two broods of baby wrens.
Did you know they make good watchdogs? Every cat, dog, stranger, and predatory bird are soundly scolded and sometimes chased. We always know what’s going on out front. :) They also learn who their ‘people’ are and will leave you alone and ignore you as long as you stay a few feet from the box. I have spent many enjoyable hours in their company.
What a beautiful nest! They must have started building that in February. :)
Phoebe really would be the Easter Bunny if that were her nest!
Thank-You for sharing; it’s beautiful! We don’t have phoebes here….
No phoebes in Oregon? It’s easy to forget how big and varied this country is.
The nest is absurdly beautifully art directed! What a gorgeous creation. For many years I raised various species of Australian grass finches: Lady Gouldians, Owl Finches, Strawberry Finches, Parrott Finches, and many, many others. My favorites were the Strawberries. They were mesmerizing for many reasons. The males really do look like little strawberries much of the year with bright red feathers flecked with white and have an absolutely beautiful, strong song despite being about the size of my thumb. The pairs were very devoted to each other and would spend hours cuddling and grooming each other on a hidden branch. But what I loved most was their nests –so beautifully constructed and filled with tiny, tiny eggs barely the size of a small jelly bean. Now, I am riveted by watching the five active wild bird nests on my small property, visible from various windows in my house, or from spots in my garden. Eastern Warblers, Wrens, Chickadees, a Robin and a small Woodpecker. As I did with my captive finches, I love sitting still and studying the courting behavior, pairing, nest building, egg sitting, chick raising and finally the fledging. It’s fascinating! Thanks so much for sharing the Phoebe nest, that’s a new one for me.
I’ve yet to see a woodpecker’s nest. Lucky you!
I can’t actually see the inside of this nest as he/she is using a wooden box specially designed for smaller woodpeckers. I rarely see them (him? her?) enter or leave, but I did catch them twice. Little sticks are protruding from the base of the diamond shape box. It’s all very exciting….!
This past spring we have a bird makes its way into our garage and make a nest in a big Christmas gift bag. We often have the garage door up with our comings and goings. My daughter only discovered it when she went to move the bag and the bird flew out. It was then we discovered her nest with eggs. We just let nature take its course. It was funny in the morning she would be waiting patiently for us to open up the garage door so she could fly out. During the nesting, we kept the door open more than usual because of the nest. My granddaughter who is five learned a lot about birds in preschool and when the babies were born and gone we let her take the nest into school to show her class. It was great learning experience for my granddaughter watching the mother feed them and explaining to her how we had to respect their space. Nature is a wonderful learning tool.
We’ve had birds nest inside of our garage, too. Perhaps they know it’s safe from nighttime predators?
I have sparrows and chickadees nesting in my back yard, I had put up a few birdhouses and some are occupied.
However, the other day my terrier killed 2 low flying sparrows in less than a minute.
I now go out before the dogs and make a little noise. Why do birds nest so close to where dogs live?
There’s danger everywhere, even in the treetops, you just don’t see it up there.
I think it’s hilarious to what lengths we’ll go to protect ‘our’ birds at this vulnerable time. Twice every spring and summer, I kill my porch light altogether so as not to interrupt the sleep cycle of the tiny warbler that takes up residence in a nest similarly positioned as Terry’s Phoebe. I have to call expected guests and remind them they’ll have to feel their way up the front steps at night. One year, a wren made a nest at the top of a towering pile of soil on my potting bench in the corner of my garage, and I had to leave the garage door open for weeks. Every chipmunk, squirrel and raccoon for miles rifled through everything in that garage that year. Every morning, it looked like the day after a frat party. And many of us have had a row of glorious, lush hanging plants…one of which we had to stop watering altogether when a robin plunked herself down in one and built a nest. The list goes on!
A friend recently found a robin’s nest in a bucket in her horse trailer. She needed to use the trailer to transport her horse to a new barn, so she spent an entire day moving the nest, slowly (as directed by a wildlife expert) so that the mamma could follow the nest out of the trailer and to a safe place.
It’s neat to see the phoebes and their comfort with people it seems. My parents have had phoebes nest under their deck perennially for at least 5 years now. We’ve had a pair in the revamped chicken coop each year that we’ve lived in our current home (almost 4 years). Before the shelter that we made into a chicken coop was a chicken coop, the phoebes nested in it too. The nest they had used for years was abandoned this year and a new nest was made in a different spot in the chicken coop. The phoebes successfully raised a good sized brood there and the chicks fledged this past weekend. I’ve already noticed an increase in insect activity since they’ve all left.
It was fun seeing the phoebe eggs in comparison to my chicken and duck eggs.