It’s official. Our birdhouse has become a home!
Papa bird hanging out on his front porch.
My son and I built this window birdhouse last year, and we’ve been waiting [not so] patiently for a bird couple to make it their own. With no such activity in sight, last month we decided to “stage” the house with a few twigs and some grass to give our yard birds a subtle hint. And our staging worked — last month we saw the first signs of nest-building. And now it’s official — we’ve seen the birds coming and going regularly from the house.
The pair that has made it their own are Sparrows. Here they are together — the female is on the perch, and the male is beside her in the nearby Cherry tree. They take turns bringing materials for the nest, and are rarely apart for very long.
It’s been interesting to watch what they put into their nest — a benefit of being able to peek in from behind our window. It is chock full of twigs, straw and grass, plus a few odd assorted items, including a gum wrapper, and this — our personal favorite:
My son calls this their Zip Line, in case one of them needs to make a hasty exit.
So we are really excited to finally have some birds in the house. It was a fun project to do with my son, and it’s nice for the patience to pay off with some great wildlife activity in the garden. As a parent, it’s wonderful to see the excitement on my son’s face as he watches the birds building their nest, knowing that his handiwork is being put to good use. Of course nature wouldn’t be nature without its imperfections and unexpected twists. In this case, it appears our birds didn’t get the memo about the proper way to build a nest. The Interwebs say it should look like this — a lovely little round nest, tilted ever-so-slightly toward the window to optimize our viewing:
But our birds decided to build their nest like this, which makes viewing tough, and isn’t going to win them any housekeeper-of-the-year awards:
In fairness, I will also not be winning any birdhouse awards, given the terrible placement of this house right at the crux of our window pane dividers. Next year we’ll know better. Onward!
*****