A bird's labor (or: Anatomy of a Nest)

When construction of the guestudio was still in the early stages, a wonderful thing happened. As soon as the "bones" of the porch were up, a bird nest began to take shape in the rafters. I could not think of a more lovely christening of the building than that. It wasn't long before we found out that it was American Robins that chose this as their nesting area. I was quite surprised, actually, because I don't normally hear or see Robins up in our woods, at least not with much frequency.


Mama Robin, incubating eggs
Four eggs were laid in that nest, and as far as I could tell, 4 birds hatched. Unfortunately, we were gone on vacation during the time they were due to fledge, so I can only cross my fingers and hope that all 4 of them made it out successfully.


Mama Robin in a nearby Redbud tree, fluffing up a bit and asking me to kindly move away from her nest.
Fast-forward to mid-August. Construction has resumed on the guestudio after a hiatus, and the roof of the porch is finished with beadboard, closing off the space where the nest once was. Thank goodness our builders had a good enough sense about me to know that they shouldn't just toss that nest on the ground. Instead, they carefully removed it and placed it inside the building so I could have a look at it when I got home. Shortly after they relocated it I took it back outside and examined it. The architecture blew me away. For an animal with no opposable thumbs, this structure is nothing short of a miracle.


The nest, turned 180 degrees from its original orientation and settled on the porch railing so I could have a better look.
The following information about American Robin nest construction comes from the Cornell University's All About Birds website:

Females build the nest from the inside out, pressing dead grass and twigs into a cup shape using the wrist of one wing. Other materials include paper, feathers, rootlets, or moss in addition to grass and twigs. Once the cup is formed, she reinforces the nest using soft mud gathered from worm castings to make a heavy, sturdy nest. She then lines the nest with fine dry grass. The finished nest is 6-8 inches across and 3-6 inches high.

Dead grass - check

Rootlets - check

Twigs - check

Other material (part of a vining plant) - check

More "other material," strands of plastic, probably from the building construction - check

Lined with fine dry grass - check

"...soft mud gathered from worm castings to make a heavy, sturdy nest" - check

A strong, secure home in which to rear young - check. A beautiful sight to behold - you better believe it.

Welcome home, my Phoebe friends

Spring has sprung, and I am delighted to announce that our resident pair of Eastern Phoebes has returned to nest on the side of our house!

They are about a week behind schedule as compared to last year. I wasn't even sure they were going to nest in the same spot again. There was actually a curious Carolina Wren checking out and reshaping the old nest for a few days.


Not to worry, though. Once the Phoebes made up their mind that they would settle in this spot, they immediately set to work reshaping it into a bowl fit for the finest Phoebe fledglings. (Say that 3 times fast!) It has been interesting to watch over the past few days how it has really taken shape. Lots of moss has been added around the outside, and it seems more firmly anchored to the side of the house. It's a big nest, though, to be sure. I think this is the third year this nest has been recycled.


This is the first year we have been able to observe them via video from day one. A bonus from this early observation: the male and female spent time together at the nest during the first few days. Time spent together lasts very briefly, as evidenced by the fact that we first started watching them on Friday, and by Tuesday the female was the only one captured on video at the nest 90% of the time. Based on which bird is doing what, we think the bird that raises and lowers the feathers on his head is the male (we call him Don King) and the one who doesn't raise head feathers is the female. We came to this conclusion because Don King mostly stands around while the female does most of the work (not using human sexist views here - the female is responsible for nest building and for incubating the eggs, as noted on BirdHouses101.com).


I would think that all this back and forth, back and forth, must be exhausting on the female. In this video I feel kind of bad for her: she comes in carrying a rather large bug in her beak and starts in on a little bowl shaping, at which point she drops the bug and continues with renovations. To me it looks like the bug gets caught on the side of the nest, so I don't know if maybe she was able to pick it up later or if she truly just forgot about it.


I would expect egg laying to begin in a few days, so incubation will probably start in the next week or so. I'll be sure to keep you posted.

P.S. I submitted a bird-themed poem to a competition over at Daily Writing Tips (opens in separate tab/window) - it's titled "Lucky". Go over and check it out if you have a chance. If you like it, please let your voice be heard by voting for it. Or vote for any of the other 9 poems - they are all great. Thank you!

More Phoebe video

Here's another video of our mamma Phoebe working on her nest. Take a look and tell me what you think she's doing.



My theory is that she's using her tail to either a) sculpt the nest; or b) balance herself while using her feet to do some rearranging down inside the nest.

What do you think?

There hasn't been a great amount of activity at the nest over the past few days. Just continued tidying and adding of moss and some dog fur. We have no idea if there are any eggs in there yet or not.

Diary of a nesting Phoebe, part II

"Dear Diary: Today was another busy day. I worked very hard, making continued improvements to my nest. That silly lady who lives in the big box thinks I started laying eggs already. Puh-leez! I would have squashed them by now with all my tidying activities! Today I am posting video entries to show you how Martha Stewart I am. Also, I will also show you how to sculpt your abs AND your nest... AT THE SAME TIME!"



"Sometimes things just don't fit right. You can't be afraid to pull something out and start over!"



"After this very long day of such tedious work, I'm pooped! I'm staying in tonight!"




A note from the humans: We experienced some problems with the broadcast of the live cam today. Dave took drastic measures and came back home this morning to get it running again, but unfortunately it crashed again within an hour. We had to go all day without watching our Phoebes! Dave is working on a way to fix this, so if you stop by and see that the cam is down, just check back later. Thanks for your patience.

Diary of a nesting Phoebe, part I

"Dear Diary: Today me and my mate had a lot of work to do. This nest really needed some sprucing up. The landlords at this place tewtally didn't keep it tidy at all during the off-season!"

"Luckily there's lots of moss and lichen around this place, which makes freshening up our little home a lot easier."

"My muscles really got a workout as I balanced on the nest and worked my belly into it to get a nice bowl hollowed out."

"No corner went untouched! The back wall needs to be reinforced as much as the sides and the front. Our babies need a sturdy, safe place to in which to hatch!"

A few notes from the "slacker" landlord: First, sorry for the picture quality. These are basically screenshots of screenshots, so the images aren't too clear, but I hope you get the gist of it. Second, we've had the cam running most of this evening, and there wasn't much activity, but suddenly I looked up and noticed someone sitting on the nest. Not fixing it up. SITTING. Normally I hear one of them before they show up on camera, but this time he or she slipped in silently. I assume it's momma Phoebe, and since she's actually staying there for the night, I would have to think she's laid her first egg!!!!

Unfortunately we can't see down into the nest to see the eggs, but time will tell soon enough. Once she starts sitting on the nest during the day, we'll start counting down the days to hatching!