Incubation, Hatching, Nestling ... Empty Nest

This is a photo journal of our observations of house finches in our front door flower basket, from incubation, hatching, nestling ... to empty nest.

On May 2nd, I noticed that there was a tiny bird nest built in this basket when I was about to take it off for the season. I kept it on the door to  allow house finches to produce their next generation, and started our more than 5 weeks of observations of this pleasant bird family on our front door.

A week later, when we looked at the basket again, we saw 4 eggs neatly lay in the nest. Knowing that finches might abandon the nest if it was tempered. We refrained from checking on the nest and the eggs. Incubation period started, which is about 13 - 14 days for house finch per 'all about birds'.

In the following two weeks, every time we got out from the front door, for running or jogging, we noticed that when the door knob was turned, the mom bird, see above photo, would promptly fly away, and perched on a tree branch looking over the nest, and kept chirping ....like saying please leave now so I can get back to hatch my eggs. In fact it did fly back to sit on the eggs after we left for a while. We were pretty sure about this because every time we came back from running/jogging, the mom bird would fly out of the basket again to perch on a tree branch to chirp, frequently the daddy bird joined her as well. 

The male finch, which has red head and red breast, see photo below, is typically on patrol, and will alert the female bird of any coming danger. Initially the female bird would fly away from the nest when we were about 3 yards away from the door. As time went by, it seemed to recognize us, and would take off when we just turned into our walkway from sidewalk. 

House finches' incubation time is 13-14 days. So the eggs should have hatched around May 23rd. On May 26th, around noon time, when I opened the front door for a after lunch walk around the block, I noticed that the mom finch was not at the nest, I looked around and did not see or hear either house finch parent. I took the basket down, and looked inside, saw 4 fluffy balls, the eggs were hatched! I quickly took a picture and put the basket back. I reported to Lily about the exciting news via text. The next period is the nestling period. In this period the baby birds would stay in the nest, they have wet feathers and too young to fly. They will stay in the nest until their feathers are dry, and longer and stronger.

The nestling period lasts about 12 - 19 days. I estimated that the baby finches would fly away around  June 6 to June 12th.
The house finches were seen and heard more frequently - they were on high alert because this was the most venerable time of baby finches life. Their frequent appearance and bird songs attract the attentions from two pairs of northern mockingbirds which have their nests in the two smaller "bulb shaped" trees in our front yard. Mockingbirds would chase them away from time to time. The house finch parents would then perched on a big tree in my next door neighbor's yard - where they could clearly see my front door area! Sometimes, the finches would use a tactic to lure the mockingbirds away from my front yard - the finches chirp loudly to attract the mockingbirds and fly away - mockingbirds would follow, and then get lost; and the finches would return to our yard long before mockingbirds did. The tactic works!

By now I noticed the finch parents would be away during noon time to forage food for their babes. On June 2nd and then June 4th, I looked at nestlings and saw them grow into shapes. They stayed there motionless and with dull eyes. They ate more and defecated more. But I was not sure if the droppings around the bird nest were from bird parents or the bird babies. There were so many droppings, they spilled over and fell on my door step, and attracting flies. We actually had to clean and flush the front door step once.

On June 7th, when we returned home from running in the morning, I noticed three finches standing on the roof, and chirping loudly, and looking down. I told Lily that those were the finch parents and their newly grown-up, calling on the remaining nestlings to take the flight into the world! 

As we opened the door to get in, the birds flew onto the tree branches so they could see the nest directly. Our curiosity got us, we kept the door ajar, and looked into the basket sideways, we saw a baby bird sitting in the nest, alert, but did not move. We closed the door and left it (them) alone.

In the evening of June 7th, when we returned home from after dinner walk, I did not see or hear any finches around, so we decided to take the basket down from the hook to take direct look to see if all finch babes are gone. As Lily was removing the basket, the last finch flapped its wings and flew out of the nest and away. That's the last nestling  at the nest. We got an empty nest in our hands!

House finches use the nest only once for incubation and nestling. They rarely reuse the nest. I waited for a couple days, just in case the young finches would return for one last night. They never did. 

After two days, no more finches in the nest, and in fact no more house finches chirping in my front yard, with nostalgia, we took down the basket with that empty nest, cleaned our front door.  Our life is back to normal.

Note

This has been a unique five week period of our life, in addition to our regular life, we paid close attention to another species. In five weeks, we witnessed the life of house finches from the baby birds's birth, to their growth and maturation, and eventually their brave flights into the world. We also witnessed the house finch parents' care to each other, dedication to their babes, and heard their beautiful bird songs and pleasant chirping. What a heart warming experience!