An oriole couple built one of their hanging nests right over our house. It was a joy watching her knit it out of grass and hair and such, and watching the beautiful male sing to her while doing so,
Babies have hatched -there are ate least 4, maybe 5 in there, a tight fit. I set up my scope today to watch the action. They are about a week old now I would guess, all heads come out of the nest for insects, one obviously larger and older than the others. The male brings the food - caterpillars or other insects. I watched him trying to feed what looked like a tomato horn worm to his young. The thing was so huge none of them could eat it. The dad wound up breaking it up into pieces so they could eat it. The mom spends time grooming the nestlings - removing bugs maybe, and wiping them on her breast, or else wiping oils from her breast onto them. She dives head first into the nest cup, not sure what she's doing down there - cleaning up after them? Or? All that shows when she does this are the tips of her wings, pointed sky-ward, and her tail. It's so much fun watching these behaviors you never get to see. Others are welcome if you want to watch, but I bet they will be fledging in a week or so. Nancy Cusumano Duboise Road (off rt 89) Cayuga Dog Rescue has saved more than 460 dogs since 2005. Learn more at cayugadogrescue.org -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
