David Ellsworth
Well-known member
(This is a very long post. You may want to first read the synopsis at the end.)
Hello everybody! I'm new to BirdForum. In the last few months, I've developed a heightened awareness of birds... I've been paying close attention to their sounds and behavior, and to the variety of birds in my neighborhood. I've been taking digiscoped photos and videos, and since May 11th, HDV footage as well.
The more I learn, the more questions are raised in my mind.
By far, the highlight of this adventure was finding a Black Phoebe nest under my neighbor's eaves on May 22nd! Until then, I estimated my chances of seeing a bird's nest to be nil. I assumed they'd be too well hidden. But, the Black Phoebe's nest is in a clear line of sight from my backyard! (I also found a Black-chinned Hummingbird nest on the same day, but that's another story.)
The nest is perhaps unusual, because it is resting on a gutter pipe. Apparently, Black Phoebe nests are usually attached to a vertical surface... But in my searches I've only been able to find two actual photos of their nests in situ. Why is that?
I've only ever seen one Black Phoebe parent at a time tending the nest, and when I used notches in the tail feathers for comparison, they matched. So as far as I can tell there's only one parent tending the nest. Does this mean the other parent died? Could this be either the mother or the father? I'll be calling the parent the mother from henceforth, even though I'm not sure.
The eggs hatched around June 5th or so. I'm not sure about the exact date because although I heard intermittant high-pitched peeping starting from that day, the mother's nest-sitting behavior was basically unchanged and I wonder if the peeping was coming from some other nest (even though it sounded like it came from the Black Phoebe's nest). I only noticed her feeding the chicks several days later. Can chicks peep before they've hatched, or is there simply a delay before they start getting fed?
I've watched the mother feed her four chicks, sometimes stuffing a whole Cabbage White or Red Admiral butterfly into a single chick's beak. As far as I can tell they still haven't opened their eyes. I hope that when they fledge, they will survive the gauntlet of cats in the neighbor's yard. (The nest at least is safe from them.)
I've heard the Phoebe yelling at a cat in that yard on many occasions, and once even saw her dive-bomb the cat. What confuses me is that her vocalizations while flycatching for her young are pretty similar to her agitated vocalizations. I wonder if there is a way to tell merely from the sound she makes whether she's agitated at a predator or just excited. Or maybe tending a nest is itself an agitating experience?
I'd like to reconstruct events as much as possible, to solve the mystery of which parent is tending the nest and if this is a second brood, and if so how many of the first brood survived. The problem is, I've been learning things as I go along, so I did not know what to watch for earlier.
What I do know is that perhaps a couple weeks before I noticed the nest, going back at least as far as late March, there were lots of Black Phoebes in the immediate area (at least three of them). Just about every day I'd hear their primary song (usually delivered from atop the neighbor's roof antenna in the morning) as well as three other vocalizations, which I'd characterize as a quick "cheep", a slower "chee", and a really sweet-sounding "eeee" descending in pitch and then ascending slightly. I'm pretty sure I have recordings of all of those, but the "eeee" may be hard to find. (My wild guess is that "eeee" is a juvenile sound, and I heard it from the mother's first brood.)
On one day (unfortunately I didn't take note of the date, but it was probably in late April), I witnessed something really amazing. I heard loud wing-flapping coming from the neighbor's yard, and when I looked over the roof, I saw that two Black Phoebes were flapping their wings against each other in midair! The same day, I later saw the same behavior in House Sparrows while taking a walk. I haven't found anything about this behavior in my readings and can only guess what it means. At the time I guessed it was a gesture of affection between the two birds.
On May 9th I witnessed a male flutter in place high up in the air above a tree while singing the primary song. This was quite amazing to watch.
I have lots of photos and video clips of the Black Phoebes, dating back to April 2nd. Some of them show a bird with mud on its beak. Does this mean that bird was engaging in nest-building, and was probably the female? Some of the photos show a plump Black Phoebe and others show a very slender bird; at the time I took that to mean they were distinct individuals, but given how they can fluff up their feathers, is that not necessarily true? I also have isolated photos of a Phoebe carrying nesting material, but there's a 12 day gap between photos of that and when I first noticed the nest.
I also have lots of videos of the Phoebes singing and preening, sometimes even spreading their wings and tailfeathers in full splendor. At this point I only have a very small selection of still photos posted, and many of the best ones aren't there... but, here they are.
My question is, what should I look for in my past photos and footage? I'm hoping to find distinguishing characteristics that will allow me to recognize the individual Black Phoebes, but how likely is this, assuming my photos have enough detail? If this is the mother's second brood, how can it be explained that the juveniles looked just like the adults (at least, after I started watching closely)? Will I be able to see the presence of absence of an incubation patch in a detailed photo from any angle?
Perhaps more importantly, what should I watch for as events continue to unfold?
And finally... have others here on BirdForum watched nesting Black Phoebes?
Recap:
Hello everybody! I'm new to BirdForum. In the last few months, I've developed a heightened awareness of birds... I've been paying close attention to their sounds and behavior, and to the variety of birds in my neighborhood. I've been taking digiscoped photos and videos, and since May 11th, HDV footage as well.
The more I learn, the more questions are raised in my mind.
By far, the highlight of this adventure was finding a Black Phoebe nest under my neighbor's eaves on May 22nd! Until then, I estimated my chances of seeing a bird's nest to be nil. I assumed they'd be too well hidden. But, the Black Phoebe's nest is in a clear line of sight from my backyard! (I also found a Black-chinned Hummingbird nest on the same day, but that's another story.)
The nest is perhaps unusual, because it is resting on a gutter pipe. Apparently, Black Phoebe nests are usually attached to a vertical surface... But in my searches I've only been able to find two actual photos of their nests in situ. Why is that?
I've only ever seen one Black Phoebe parent at a time tending the nest, and when I used notches in the tail feathers for comparison, they matched. So as far as I can tell there's only one parent tending the nest. Does this mean the other parent died? Could this be either the mother or the father? I'll be calling the parent the mother from henceforth, even though I'm not sure.
The eggs hatched around June 5th or so. I'm not sure about the exact date because although I heard intermittant high-pitched peeping starting from that day, the mother's nest-sitting behavior was basically unchanged and I wonder if the peeping was coming from some other nest (even though it sounded like it came from the Black Phoebe's nest). I only noticed her feeding the chicks several days later. Can chicks peep before they've hatched, or is there simply a delay before they start getting fed?
I've watched the mother feed her four chicks, sometimes stuffing a whole Cabbage White or Red Admiral butterfly into a single chick's beak. As far as I can tell they still haven't opened their eyes. I hope that when they fledge, they will survive the gauntlet of cats in the neighbor's yard. (The nest at least is safe from them.)
I've heard the Phoebe yelling at a cat in that yard on many occasions, and once even saw her dive-bomb the cat. What confuses me is that her vocalizations while flycatching for her young are pretty similar to her agitated vocalizations. I wonder if there is a way to tell merely from the sound she makes whether she's agitated at a predator or just excited. Or maybe tending a nest is itself an agitating experience?
I'd like to reconstruct events as much as possible, to solve the mystery of which parent is tending the nest and if this is a second brood, and if so how many of the first brood survived. The problem is, I've been learning things as I go along, so I did not know what to watch for earlier.
What I do know is that perhaps a couple weeks before I noticed the nest, going back at least as far as late March, there were lots of Black Phoebes in the immediate area (at least three of them). Just about every day I'd hear their primary song (usually delivered from atop the neighbor's roof antenna in the morning) as well as three other vocalizations, which I'd characterize as a quick "cheep", a slower "chee", and a really sweet-sounding "eeee" descending in pitch and then ascending slightly. I'm pretty sure I have recordings of all of those, but the "eeee" may be hard to find. (My wild guess is that "eeee" is a juvenile sound, and I heard it from the mother's first brood.)
On one day (unfortunately I didn't take note of the date, but it was probably in late April), I witnessed something really amazing. I heard loud wing-flapping coming from the neighbor's yard, and when I looked over the roof, I saw that two Black Phoebes were flapping their wings against each other in midair! The same day, I later saw the same behavior in House Sparrows while taking a walk. I haven't found anything about this behavior in my readings and can only guess what it means. At the time I guessed it was a gesture of affection between the two birds.
On May 9th I witnessed a male flutter in place high up in the air above a tree while singing the primary song. This was quite amazing to watch.
I have lots of photos and video clips of the Black Phoebes, dating back to April 2nd. Some of them show a bird with mud on its beak. Does this mean that bird was engaging in nest-building, and was probably the female? Some of the photos show a plump Black Phoebe and others show a very slender bird; at the time I took that to mean they were distinct individuals, but given how they can fluff up their feathers, is that not necessarily true? I also have isolated photos of a Phoebe carrying nesting material, but there's a 12 day gap between photos of that and when I first noticed the nest.
I also have lots of videos of the Phoebes singing and preening, sometimes even spreading their wings and tailfeathers in full splendor. At this point I only have a very small selection of still photos posted, and many of the best ones aren't there... but, here they are.
My question is, what should I look for in my past photos and footage? I'm hoping to find distinguishing characteristics that will allow me to recognize the individual Black Phoebes, but how likely is this, assuming my photos have enough detail? If this is the mother's second brood, how can it be explained that the juveniles looked just like the adults (at least, after I started watching closely)? Will I be able to see the presence of absence of an incubation patch in a detailed photo from any angle?
Perhaps more importantly, what should I watch for as events continue to unfold?
And finally... have others here on BirdForum watched nesting Black Phoebes?
Recap:
- I've become especially interested in birds lately, and I'm pretty sure it'll remain a lifelong interest.
- There were lots of Black Phoebes in the immediate vicinity of my house.
- They all left except for one, who has been tending a nest.
- I would like to reconstruct past events from photos and video clips I've taken since I first started noticing the Phoebes. At the time, I didn't understand and thus didn't properly observe what was going on.
- Maybe this is a second brood, but I don't know whether to be sure of that.
- There's only one parent tending the nest. Did something happen to the other one?
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