The Birders Report

Tree Swallows and Their Nestlings

by Larry Jordan on June 19, 2012

Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) photos by Larry Jordan

Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) are cavity nesters just like Bluebirds. If you are a Bluebird trail monitor, especially if your trail is near water, you are very likely to have Tree Swallows nesting in your nest boxes. Click on photos for full sized images.

One of my Bluebird trails is at Lema Ranch, a facility with five ponds on the premises. Until this year I had six nest boxes at Lema Ranch, placed at least 100 yards apart for Western Bluebirds. The Bluebirds and Tree Swallows would sometimes compete for those six boxes even though there are many oak trees with probably hundreds of natural cavities in which either species could nest.

This year I doubled the number of nest boxes to twelve, placing them about 25 feet apart. This pairing of nest boxes where these two species coexist has been studied by several people, including Kevin Berner, Research Committee Chairman for the North American Bluebird Society, and generally is found to benefit both species.

When approaching a monitored nest box (and here I want to state that all nest boxes should be monitored) occupied by Tree Swallows you might see either of the two situations expressed in the photos above, or you may see both. You may see one of the adult pair atop the nest box and the other adult at the entrance hole. You may also encounter this.

Tree Swallows are fierce defenders of their nest. At any sign of disturbance at a swallow nest site, every swallow within hearing range comes to investigate and harass the intruder. When checking nest boxes, the adult Tree Swallows will often dive bomb me as shown in the photo above. They come very close but have never made contact with me.

These are the nestlings at about two weeks old. They will be ready to fledge within a week.

A couple of weeks ago while monitoring the Lema Ranch trail, as I reached the last nest box I found this…

a nestling sticking its head out of the nest box entrance and begging for food.

Most nestlings depart the nest at an age of 18 to 22 days. These nestlings looked like they were being coaxed out of the nest by their parents.

One of the best things about monitoring your nest boxes is that you can predict fairly closely what day the nestlings may fledge. Nest departure can occur at any time of day and this was late in the afternoon, getting near sundown.

The young didn’t fledge this evening but I shot some video of the adults trying to coax them out of the nest. You can see the chick sticking its head out of the entrance, watching as the parents fly by several times teasing it. At the 1:05 mark you will see an adult doing a “mock” feeding where it approaches the nestling but doesn’t actually feed it. That chick was almost completely out of the nest box.

The next segment shows a different nest box two weeks later with one of the nestlings about four days younger that the other five in the box. The youngest nestling actually gets fed in that segment.

Those little chicks sure are fun to watch!

If you want to see more bird photos from around the world, check out World Bird Wednesday!

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California Quail Female with Chicks

by Larry Jordan on June 11, 2012

California Quail (Callipepla californica) Female photos by Larry Jordan

I took a trip into town a few days ago, mostly for garden supplies. On the way home with the car loaded with all kinds of stuff, I realized that I had forgotten to stop at the local feed store.

I was only about a mile past the store so I turned around in the next rural driveway I came to and guess what I saw walking up this guy’s driveway? A pair of California Quail (Callipepla californica) with about a dozen chicks! (Click on photos for full sized images).

Ok, where in the heck is my camera? It’s usually sitting on the front seat which is now covered with various items, the floorboard is packed full of food and so is the back seat. I look up the driveway again and the quail family is still slowly making their way up the steep slope, the tiny chicks all huddled around the female as the male took the vanguard position.

A typical clutch for California Quail is 12 to 14 eggs but they can have more than 20 in a clutch. The female usually does all of the incubating which begins after the entire clutch is laid, producing a synchronous hatch.

The synchronous hatch of the California Quail is accomplished by vocalizations and continuous clicking sounds. Then, just before hatching, the young give a hatching call and the entire clutch is usually hatched within four hours¹. You can hear some of the California Quail calls here.

The chicks are born precocial meaning they have their eyes open, they are covered with down and they are ready to go!

They immediately follow the parents, pecking at the ground. Their yolk sacs will be absorbed in two weeks when they have developed foraging skills¹.

These chicks probably hatched this morning and the parents were taking them out on their first excursion. The male had gone ahead and was standing sentinel on top of the rocks above but the female was keeping her chicks well hidden underneath.

This straggler finally joined its siblings giving mom some relief I’m sure.

Now that they were all together under mom’s watchful eye, they could relax in their camouflage down coats.

If you want to see more great bird photos from around the world, you gotta check out World Bird Wednesday! Come on and join the fun by posting your own bird photos!

References: ¹Birds of North America Online

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Red-tailed Hawks Nesting on High Power Tower

by Larry Jordan on June 6, 2012

Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) Eyas photos by Larry Jordan

I’ve been chronicling this pair of Red-tailed Hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) and submitting their breeding records to Cornell Lab for the last four years. Last year was not so good as the pair hatched two eyas and lost them after a huge storm in late May. I never saw them at the nest after that storm and I guess I’ll never know what happened. You can see the last photos and video I took of them with the male bringing a snake back to the nest for mama hawk’s dinner.

This day, the hawks were very vigilant as they were both near the tower where they built the new nest last year. Here’s mama on the old nest across the tower from the eyas.

And dad above her at the top of the tower.

Just a few weeks ago, there were two eyas in the nest and now there is one. I have no idea what happened to the other chick but it looks like they will have an easier time with the single eyas this year.

As you can see from the video, these photos are digiscoped from quite a distance

As the female perched on the old nest like a statue, the adult male was quite active and vocal, calling from nearby trees and towers. Here he is wondering what this Bullock’s Oriole is doing in his territory.

Cornell Lab of Ornithology has a Red-tailed Hawk webcam with awesome videos you can see at their channel. I have embedded this one showing two eyas being fed and the third egg being pipped.

For more great bird photos from around the world, check out World Bird Wednesday!