We have some hanging baskets of impatiens over the front porch. On Wednesday, my husband was watering one of them and saw the beginnings of a nest tucked into the leaves. We checked yesterday, and the nest is now complete. I’m not positive, because I haven’t seen a bird around it yet, but there is a mated pair of cardinals that have been hanging out very close to the nest lately, and I think it’s probably theirs.
So now we’re wondering if we can keep the plant from dying without scaring off the birds. Should we attempt to water the plant, or let it die and leave the nest in peace? If we do water it, what would disturb the birds the least? The nest is toward one edge of the basket, but then the basket tends to rotate, so it may not always be in the same spot.
The plant is probably going to die anyway if it has a bird sitting on it. This happened to my grandmother several years in a row (Chinese doves in her case), and the plant didn’t survive. Wet dirt would probably not endear the birds and would likely force them off. Even if they didn’t mind the dirt, disturbing their nest would probably scare them off anyway . . . so really, the question is, do you mind sacrificing a plant so these birds can nest?
The last two years in a row we had a house finch nest in a hanging basket on the front porch. My wife watered it carefully. The plant survived, and both years the finch raise a healthy batch of little finches which eventually flew away.
Why would watering the plant drive off the birds – I mean birds can cope with rain showers. I guess you mean the human intrusion, not the water, would spook them away, right? Well, why not stand at a distance and give the whole vicinity of the plant a gentle hose-drizzle, just like a rain shower?
Funny, there’s a predicament like this on another board I’m on.
A birder there recommended putting a pot exactly like the one next to the pot with flowers (in your case, another hanging basket), put moss in it and gently move the nest over there when the parent birds are away. It’s not true that handling the nest will drive the birds away. They’ll accept the new location, although in the case of the other bird nest they’ll be a bit befuddled at first (he reported the birds-- by accounts finches-- dug around the old location a bit even though they went to the other nest just fine.)
Every time I have gotten a fucsia plant to hang out on the deck I’ve been invaded by The Birds. They’re such lovely flowers, apparently the The Birds like 'em too. I never water once I see a nest is in the works, it just seems rude. From my experience chances of the plant surviving are nil. Every time I end up tossing planter/hanger once vacated into the trash. The first year after the little birds hatched and the nest was abondoned I went to take the plant down and check out the nest. Before I’d even set it down it felt like the skin on my forearms was crawling. Twas a raging horde of really little black creepy crawlie BUGS! :eek: The Horror! The Horror! Be sure to wear gloves and have a big trashbag at hand during disposal it makes that appreciating nature stuff a lil more enjoyable sometimes.
mojave66, great suggestion, will definitely try that next time around
Thanks for the feedback, folks. This weekend we noticed that the birds aren’t constantly on the nest anyway, so we managed to get a couple of waterings in while they were off doing whatever it is they do when they’re not nest-sitting. I still don’t know what kind of birds they are-- not cardinals or nuthatches. The female is a mottled brown, and the male has a brown/gray body with a very pretty reddish-orange head and throat. Lovely warble, too. I’m discovering how hard it is to look up bird on the Net when you have no idea what they’re called.
Anyway, after two waterings, the nest is fine and now has two little eggs in it. We’ll let the plant die if it seems we’re scaring off the birdies.
The BUGS story is a wee bit disturbing. If needs be, I’ll just carry the whole thing by the hook and toss it when the babies are grown and gone! Ew.
try this site to search for birds. I used it to find out what kind of birds my mom was seeing at her feeder and you can just input the info you know, and leave out anything you don’t. It comes up with a picture list of birds it could be.
I sucessfully watered a hanging basket with a nest last spring as well. The birds and plant survived, but the plant was a little droopy and smushed where the nest was.
I had an additional dilemma as well. I was watching the nest as it was right outside my front door and I could see the eggs quite easily, and one day I noticed an imposter egg - another bird had pushed out one of the eggs and replaced it with her own. It was clearly a different size and color than the original egg. By that time I was kind of attached to the eggs and felt bad that the poor mom bird was stuck taking care of this other egg abandoned by deadbeat mom. I wondered if I should take the imposter egg out, or let nature take its course. In the end I did not physically interfere, but I did inform the mother that one of the eggs was not hers. She was a generous and forgiving bird and hatched the egg like one of her own. I think it actually hatched first and pushed the other egg out, too. Poor mom worked hard for nothing. Nature is cruel, that was my lesson.
We’ve got a similar dilemma. We have a hanging basket hanging by the front door. The flowers in there were seasonal, and had died last year, so there aren’t live plants in there - just some dead stems. Last winter, before we could take it down, it froze to the underhang, so we didn’t get around to removing it, and ignored it - planning to replant it in the spring. This spring, at some point we noticed that every time we came up to the door, a bird lit out of the abandoned plant and took off. Sure enough, this bird has its nest in the dead plant. We would really prefer to replace it with a nice (living) plant, but we don’t want to evict the bird and its nest, so for now, it stays.
my MIL had a hanging fern on their outdoor porch when they still lived in PA. several years running some birds built a nest in it. the fern survived their presence nicely. just water when they’re not there. (even if they are there, they’ll probably vacate if you show up.)
For the last 3 years we’ve had nests in our hanging baskets and the wreath on our front door. One thing we’ve learned is that birds do NOT abandon their nests at the drop of a hat. When we go on the porch the nest sitter usually flies away and waits in the yard or on the roof for us to go away. While the bird is off the nest we water the plants. We’ve never had a bird abandon a nest yet.
Velma, that was the coolest link ever! I’ve been exploring (and listening to all the calls-- what a marvelous feature!), and I’m now quite sure they’re a pair of finches, and I’m leaning toward Purple Finch. The calls recorded on the site aren’t quite what I am remembering, but it could be that I’ve been hearing a diferent bird but attributing it to the nesting pair.
OK, I just read the nesting descriptions more carefully, and I think lachesis has got it. Sorry to be running my mouth in this thread so much, but I am getting a kick out of the little guys (as are the cats, since the nest is directly in front of the living room window).
I noticed yesterday we have the same situation. I believe they’re finches as well, squatting in a hanging asparagus fern. I’m going to mark their entrance on the outside and water on the other.
You’re welcome, I thought it was a good site too! It’s more comprehensive than a lot of other ones out there and has good pictures and facts about the birds. Took me a while to find it - like you I was having trouble finding a good site that would help me identify a bird with only a few known characteristics.
I am always amazed at how birds can take bits of things and make sturdy little nests out of it all.
We had a bird house on a tree that some birds made a nest in. The house fell off the tree today (no eggs in it) My mother wants to thow away the house I say it needs to go back up for the birds. She says they will build a new nest some where else and won’t poop on my car. Can we remove the bird house out would that cause severe problems?
it makes that appreciating nature stuff a lil more enjoyable sometimes.