One Crazy Summer of Baby Birds!

Well, its been one crazy summer. I am sorry I have not had time to blog until today! We have had the busiest summer (and year) we've ever had here at Native Bird Care. The stars of the show this summer were: Northern Flickers, Black Headed Grosbeak, Barn Swallows, a Pied Billed Grebe, common poorwills, and of course the robins are always stars!

Let's start with the flickers! This crew of 5 came in from a tree removal in mid-town Bend which was not prepared for putting a nest back up in the adjacent trees. These little cuties stole my heart. From naked babies to young, healthy flighted beauties. There were 2 runts, little boy, little girl. But once they were treated with an antiparasitic, they bounced back and kept up with their 2 large, handsome brothers, and spunky, chunky sister. They are currently still feeding from us still outside and learning the ropes of how to be an ant eating flicker. Luckily, I have a flicker family here who calls my eaves 'home.' They were a handful, required increasingly larger enclosures, and had voracious appetites. I just adore these amazing birds. 

One thing so cool about the flicker is all the varied vocalizations they can do. They are gentle, sweet birds, but have extremely high stress levels. Basically, its a form of slow tai chi to feed, clean, and care for them. They reminded me every day to slow down, and enjoy the ride. I just adore them....And yes, I will feed them for as long as they want me to. 

If you look closely at the top of their heads, you will see a line. The very front of their head is where their tongue attaches, and runs along this line. Woodpeckers have the neatest tongues!

Cute little babies, with their pin feathers. What a face!

Look at those sweet faces. Now you grow up and pound on people's houses now...

Inside enclosure, they finally were happy in a 6'x4'x5' netted enclosure. The soft-sided dog crate was not good enough!

To the aviary! Still hand-feeding, but too large to be inside.