Ever since I put up some alyssum in a hanging planter, the local finches have been attacking it and eating it. Then, last week, I noticed a pair of finches were actually rustling around inside the pot. I took the pot off its hook and found this!
Well, I guess there goes that plant, since I obviously can’t water it anymore. Mama and Daddy finch watched in consternation from the neighbor’s roof as I took photos of their eggs. Mama finch is super cute sitting inside the pot with just her head sticking above the flowers. Unfortunately, I can’t get a picture of this since she flies off when I open the door.
Cute! It rains in nature, so maybe you could just water it a little around the sides without pouring water right into the nest? I think it’s only a month before the babies leave the nest.
Okay, using www.whatbird.com, I have identified them as house finches. (Thank goodness they weren’t sparrows or something, I would have had to turn in my Girl Scout badges for being so bad at bird identification.)
Fun fact: a group of house finches is known as a “development.”
We have an open air stairwell at work. Note the light fixture, which is on 24/7. On the top right hand corner is a house finch nest ( sorry about the bad photo ). On a perpetually on light fixture. How mom gets any sleep, I’ll never know :D.
I noticed Daddy Finch was hopping around the planter excitedly this afternoon, so I went out to check. I found four, squirming, fuzzy, wormy, chicks! Aww, they’re so…well, cute isn’t quite the word for it…
They’ve got long, floppy necks with scaly patches on either side and little mohawk stripes of feathers on their pink bodies. The cutest part is how they’re all snuggled together. No sign of eggshells, do the parents eat them?
There’s no sign of them this morning, I think they must have fledged while I wasn’t looking. They were getting very feathery and too big for their nest. I’m sad! My babies have grown up!
Several times this Spring I was watering hanging baskets at night only to have a small bird explode from the foilage. That’ll sure get your heart going.
I see the family around the yard and it’s been fun to watch the mom and dad all protective-like of the young 'uns. I wish I knew what they are but searches with the whatbird link yielded pictures unlike what we’ve got. They’re small like your Finch, only much more rust and brown. Cute little buggers though. I could watch them flittering around for hours.
