For the better part of a month, Cynthia Madsen, Mary O’Connor, and I have been dutifully watching a Cordilleran Flycatcher pair apparently nesting along the Little Dry Creek in Centennial, CO (Arapahoe, approx. 5475’). Our visits weren’t daily, but they were nearly so, and we’ve been rewarded with the opportunity to observe the pair’s behavior as the apparent nest went along.
I say apparent because we never found the nest, which we think / thought was under a bridge over the creek. We inferred from changes in behavior – the male ceasing to sing regularly, the female remaining out of sight most of the time, the female reappearing to make food runs, those food runs increasing in frequency – that nesting was occurring. The timeline of these shifts in behavior roughly corresponded to the timeline we calculated based on Atlas data about Cordy nesting. There was definitely a nest, we now know. Today, when I arrived at the nesting location, I was thrilled to hear some apparent begging calls from near the bridge. The pair continually visited the location with food. And then, from some movement near the apparent parents, a fledgling emerged: cowbird. We’d worried about cowbirds but hoped that the likely location of the nest – under the bridge – would protect against that. It’s possible that the nest, in fact, was near but not under the bridge – or that it was under a sort of “eave” around the bridge. Or it’s just possible that a female cowbird found the nest under the bridge. A small, not-quite-consolation: the Cordy feeding behavior was interesting today. Previously, they had been flycatching in a Peachleaf Willow and downstream from the bridge, out of view. Today, they did much more flycatching nearer the bridge, where the fledgling cowbird was. Specifically, I saw several efforts to nab insects from the ground. Here’s the timeline of our observations, keeping in mind we didn’t make daily visits, nor were our visits always at the same time of day. And some were relatively brief (20-30 minutes). 5/24 – Male present 6/6 – Female arrives 6/7 – Female carrying nesting material 6/23 (or so) – Male singing slows 6/27 – Female carrying food – one run observed; not apparent if female ate or fed food. 6/28 – Female leaving nest more frequently on food runs 7/7 – Cowbird fledgling near bridge, fed by Cordy pair (definitely by female, possibly by male). Not the outcome I was hoping for, but so it goes. - Jared Del Rosso Centennial, CO -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/131f3130-727e-45aa-8b1d-ba08117a5dae%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
