Eastern Phoebe Update

I manged to take a picture of the Phoebe nest when the mom was out of the garage. To my surprise there were 4 white eggs and 1 larger speckled. I had never seen this before, but Google came to the rescue. I Googles "Eastern Pheobe eggs" and discovered that this was common. A brown cowbird ids a parasitic bird that lays its eggs in other birds nests and hopefully the othe bird will feed and care for the new chick.  The problem is that this new chick will be larger & more aggressive that the phorebe chicks and may get more of the food from the parents

Cowbird egg in the the 4 Phoebe eggs

We decided to wait and see what will happen. A few days later, I took another photo.

The hatched cowbird

The cowbird had hatched, but the phoebe eggs were still there.  We were worried that the mom would spend all her time feeding the cowbird and abandon setting on her phoebe eggs to hatch.  It turns out that our fears were unfounded as the mother continued to sit on the eggs with the cowbird under her.

After about 4 days. I snapped another photo. This time I was able to see 3 hatched phoebes and the cowbird.  I was amazed at the size difference between the birds. I hope the little ones get fed enough.  The mom & dad are both busy feeding the chicks. I will check tomorrow to see if all is ok,

Large cowbird chick and 3 phoebe chicks ( two with their mouth up, one maybe just hatching)

Memorial Day Update: Sad news to report. I decided to do an up close inspection of the nest, to determine the state of the phoebe chicks.  I removed the large cowbird, now with feathers from the nest. remaining there were 1 unhatched egg and 1 dead phoebe chick.  The other phoebe chick mysteriously disappeared.  Our only hope now is that they return for their second brood later this year.  So sad, but I guess that is the state of wildlife, it doesn't always turn out as you wish.