swallownest
New member
Hi,
Thank you for this great site!
I live on the top floor of a 3-flat in Illinois by Lake Michigan in the United States and joined the bird forum, because I'm hoping to see if anyone can help me understand a nesting phenomenon I'm witnessing this year.
I have a barn swallow nest on my back stairwell and for the first time in the seven years I have lived here, a chickadee and what looks like a sparrow (she's a little prettier than your average sparrow with a slightly longer beak and doe-like eyes) are feeding the barn swallow babies, while the barn swallow parents come and go and sleep on the stairwell, but don't feed them.
A little background... the chickadee claimed the mud barn swallow nest early on by draping it with grass and was constantly chirping on the light fixture below it as if he trying to attract a mate. A little later on, I saw the "sparrow" in the nest and thought that she was going to lay eggs there. Then I saw the barn swallows come in and they were in the nest for a while.
Meanwhile, it seemed like the chickadee had created a nest in between the building and the roof not too far from the swallow nest.
When I started hearing a lot of chirping, I saw barn swallow babies (they look just like the many who have hatched there year after year) and the barn swallow parents close by, but the chickadee and "sparrow" have been feeding them as if they were the parents. The only thing the barn swallow parents do is sleep in the stairwell at night or stand guard on the light fixture below. They haven't been aggressive towards me when I go out on the back stairwell as they usually are and they are very hands-off when it comes to the chickadee and "sparrow".
Unfortunately I have not been able to get pictures or video to document this... I tried yesterday, but my camera does not have a zoom lens, blowing up the pictures did not help either, and the chickadee and "sparrow" are very skittish when they see me in the back door window or on the stairwell, with the chickadee chirping incessantly at me from the safety of an adjacent telephone line.
Has anyone ever heard of another bird species, let alone two, feeding another species' babies? I would love to learn more about this if anyone has information. It fascinates me to see how attentive this chickadee and sparrow are to these little guys that are not their own while the barn swallow parents look on.
Many thanks in advance!
Thank you for this great site!
I live on the top floor of a 3-flat in Illinois by Lake Michigan in the United States and joined the bird forum, because I'm hoping to see if anyone can help me understand a nesting phenomenon I'm witnessing this year.
I have a barn swallow nest on my back stairwell and for the first time in the seven years I have lived here, a chickadee and what looks like a sparrow (she's a little prettier than your average sparrow with a slightly longer beak and doe-like eyes) are feeding the barn swallow babies, while the barn swallow parents come and go and sleep on the stairwell, but don't feed them.
A little background... the chickadee claimed the mud barn swallow nest early on by draping it with grass and was constantly chirping on the light fixture below it as if he trying to attract a mate. A little later on, I saw the "sparrow" in the nest and thought that she was going to lay eggs there. Then I saw the barn swallows come in and they were in the nest for a while.
Meanwhile, it seemed like the chickadee had created a nest in between the building and the roof not too far from the swallow nest.
When I started hearing a lot of chirping, I saw barn swallow babies (they look just like the many who have hatched there year after year) and the barn swallow parents close by, but the chickadee and "sparrow" have been feeding them as if they were the parents. The only thing the barn swallow parents do is sleep in the stairwell at night or stand guard on the light fixture below. They haven't been aggressive towards me when I go out on the back stairwell as they usually are and they are very hands-off when it comes to the chickadee and "sparrow".
Unfortunately I have not been able to get pictures or video to document this... I tried yesterday, but my camera does not have a zoom lens, blowing up the pictures did not help either, and the chickadee and "sparrow" are very skittish when they see me in the back door window or on the stairwell, with the chickadee chirping incessantly at me from the safety of an adjacent telephone line.
Has anyone ever heard of another bird species, let alone two, feeding another species' babies? I would love to learn more about this if anyone has information. It fascinates me to see how attentive this chickadee and sparrow are to these little guys that are not their own while the barn swallow parents look on.
Many thanks in advance!
