Signs of Summer 4: Fledglings in the Yard

Photo by D. Sillman

Watching the fledglings around my yard:

A robin with a juvenile speckled breast follows an adult around my concrete slab basketball court. You assume the adult is teaching the fledgling how to find food, but the fledgling seems to be staring off into space rather than watching what the adult is doing. The adult frequently finds worms and larvae and insects in the slab cracks of the court and instantly the fledgling pops out of its mental fog and rushes up to the adult. She flutters her wings and chirps and puts her open beak an inch away from the adult. The adult stuffs whatever she found into the fledgling’s mouth and then goes back to hunting. The fledgling does not seem aware of the process, only the end result.

Photo by I. Taylor. Wikimedia Commons

The front yard crows made their nest up in the red pines of my street-side woodlot. I watched them back in early April flying in and out of the pines with great beaks full of sticks and grass. A couple of weeks ago a fledgling (as large as the adult she was following but not quite as glossy black) showed up at the morning peanut and shelled corn feast out under my sunflower feeders. The fledgling watched the adult crow closely and raised her wings and shook her head when the adult picked up a peanut or a piece of corn. That went on for several days until finally all of the morning crows were independently gathering their breakfast bits. The fledgling still shows himself through the day by lingering in the yard even when I step off the porch, or by not immediately flying to the high, safe perches when cars or dogs or cats cruise by. Breakfast was an easy lesson, there are many harder things that a young crow needs more days (and weeks) to learn. Two adult crows frantically chased off a sharp-shinned hawk yesterday afternoon. The crow fledgling just sat out in the middle of the field agitated by all of noise but uncertain as what to do.

This morning when I went out to fill the bird feeders a house finch fledgling kept her spot on the perch of my hopper feeder even after I opened the top and began to pour in a scoop of sunflower seeds. She only flew when the noise (or vibration?) of the falling seeds rattled her perch.

Photo by K. Thomas, USFWS Public Domain

Also this morning a cardinal fledgling was standing on the sidewalk and let me walk right past her as I went in and out of the porch door. No fear. No flight. As I sit at my writing desk, I am watching an adult male cardinal jumping down into the leaf compost pile out in the backyard.  He grabs the odd wiggler or tidbit from the compost and then jumps back up on the surrounding wire fence to give the morsel to his fluttering fledgling. When he hops back into the compost the fledgling freezes in place. When he hops back up she flutters like mad and chirps. This goes on for fifteen minutes and then they both fly away.

A Carolina wren and her fledgling are chirping loudly in the lower branches of the arbor vitae. They are being incredibly conspicuous in a zone frequently prowled by the neighborhood cats! The fledgling, though, can’t seem to keep her volume down when the parental bird is in sight! I

Photo by D. Sillman

have watched the adult stick her beak into the open beak of the fledgling. I can only imagine the tasty mix of branch-gleaned insects and larvae that she is sharing! The adult immediately moves up to higher branches to keep hunting. The fledgling sits down low, in the danger zone, waiting for more. Later the wren and the fledgling join us on the deck. The fledgling sits on the surrounding fence like a Christmas ornament while the adult frets and fusses.

The mortality rate of these fledglings is incredible. Probably half of them won’t make it to their one or two month birthday. Predators can just walk up to them (or swoop down on them) and grab a quick snack, and the learning curves for self-sustained food gathering are incredibly steep. Many of them have only just figured out the basic physics of flying, but they are having difficulties avoiding obstacles like branches or buildings. Windows especially are something that takes a long time to understand. Some of the fledglings will be eaten, others will starve, some will break their necks or wings in collisions, and then their parents (the creme-de-la-crème from their own generations!) will start all over again.

Photo by Neonorange, Wikimedia Commons

I mentioned the geese down on Roaring Run a few weeks ago. I was on a bike ride and saw two adult Canada geese with six brand new, feather-fuzzy goslings. The parent’s both hissed at me as I biked past (bringing back some really vivid memories of being chased by goose when I was a kid (I climbed up into an apple tree to get away!)). Well, the next week there were only four goslings. Today, there were only three. The parents still hissed when I rode past, but they don’t seem to have the same energy they did when they had their full family.

The fledglings are born without fear and without any innate hunting behaviors. Both must be learned very quickly if they are to go to the head of their generation and have the chance to mate and pass along their DNA. The slaughter of the young, though, like Malthus inferred and Darwin described, sculpts the population (and the species) into its wild, functional form. If all of these baby birds survived, the population would be full of inept buffoons who had no idea of what it really meant to be a bird!

Good news! The robin fledgling is by herself on the basketball court. She is hopping from crack to crack and probing the weeds with her sharp beak. I haven’t seen her catch anything yet, but she is making all of the right moves! She will graduate from her juvinile spots soon, I am sure!

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3 Responses to Signs of Summer 4: Fledglings in the Yard

  1. Jennifer Wood says:

    Another wonderful post and great photos! While trying to pull a fox grape vine out of our lilac bushes this afternoon, we realized we were bothering a nest full newly hatched birds…too young for us to tell what they are (the parents didn’t seem to be around). We’ll go at the fox grape later when the younguns are gone. Seems as if they have enough to deal with without people mucking around near their nests. Glad to read that the robin fledgling is getting with the program. 🙂

  2. Paul Hess says:

    I meant “Love it”!

  3. Paul Hess says:

    Delightful — packed with super-observant fast-moving imagery. The penultimate paragraph is a marvelous summation of the science. I’ve it!

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