The Saga of the Eastern Phoebes - 2018

I probably posted some of the info earlier, but now that the saga has ended, I feel that it's appropriate to repost some of the tale now.

5 years ago a pair of Eastern Phoebes constructed a nest in our garage on top of my fishing poles.  (I have not been fishing since!)  Each year since then the pair has returned to start another family.  Each year they add on to the nest to make it like new. Last year, the nest was almost reaching the ceiling, so I thought that if they came back this year, there would be no room for the "fix-up", so earlier this spring I cut the nest down in half.

Last Years Nest almost up to the ceiling

Well they did come back for the 5th straight year and all seemed to be going well with the mom nesting on her eggs. Until, I decided to take a picture of the eggs!

Eggs in the nest, 1 is different?

There were 4 white eggs, and 1 speckled egg. I thought, what the the hell is this all about?  After 1 Google search for "Eastern Phoebe Eggs", I had my answer and I became worried!  That speckled egg was a cowbird egg and that was not good news.

Cowbirds are parasitic birds that lay their eggs in other birds nests.  In the case of the phoebes, the cowbird will hatch earlier than the phoebes, take up all the attention from the parents, get all the food and grow the fastest.  In most cases to the detriment of the phoebes.

I was faced with a dilemma, should I removed the cowbird egg or not!  After more searches, I discovered that it is illegal according the to Migratory Bird Treaty to remove these eggs.  You can read some more about it: just click this link.

So I let nature take its course and the worst happened.  The cowbird hatched a few days before the phoebes and was huge compare to the phoebes.

The cowbird hatched first as expected.

Cowbird & 2 phoebes hungry for food.

Just look at the difference in sizes between the birds.

The cowbird got all the attention and most of the food. Needless to say, none of the phoebes survived and the cowbird and adoptive parents eventually flew off.

Now usually the Phoebes return later in the summer for a second brood of chicks, but not even a week later, I was the female cowbird sitting on the nest.  It appeared that she return for a "do-over" because none of her chicks survived.

It started with one egg, and each day thereafter there was another egg until she reached 5 eggs!

Each day another egg!

After there were no more eggs, the countdown started: 15 days until the hatch!  During this time, 4 of the eggs turns from tan to white, while 1 egg stayed tan? Didn't know what this meant.

1 egg seems a little off color

Well, 15 days later (June 29) there were 4 new phoebe nestlings.

Recently hatched phoebes

They grew strong without a cowbird to steal the attention.  As they grew up we were able to video the parents feeding them & teaching them to fly.

First Flying Lesson

First Flight

Well the story concludes here:

So Elly and I are going out and as we pass through the garage, Elly looks up and says: "There's only 3!" Right at that moment, all three babies flew out of the nest and two flew out the garage door, the third flew into the house because the door was open!

We go back inside and the little bird is on the floor in front of the laundry. So we finally catch it and go to put it back in the nest.

On the laundry floor

Caught it unharmed

Meanwhile we can hear the mom squawking outside. I put the bird back in the nest and it immediately flew outside to get with the mom.

No more Phoebes. I wonder if this counts as the 2nd brood or will she come back again later in the summer to do it again, Stay Tuned.

P.s. what was left in the nest was the brown egg that never hatched.  And she never came back. hopefully next year!