We have had the pleasure of a small dove faced wee bird nesting above our front door in our birdhouse.
Apparently she comes back each year, to nest and teach them to fly in our yard.
She has red tail feathers, her mate has a beautiful black head and they both make flickering sounds by moving their tails rapidly up and down.
I didn’t realize there were two birds looking after the nest, with four little precious eggs inside until someone pointed it out to me.
The female bird sat on those eggs for at least 2 weeks, poor girl looked like she was getting tired, and I hoped they would hatch soon.
She poked her head out at us a few times during gestation. Once they hatched, she was in full swing, catching insects and bugs throughout the course of the day at impressive speeds. You could see her all around our home, and we got to know her sounds and her flight paths.
The male bird kept his distance, and visited but not sure if he helped out with feeding or not- they look too similar too tell.
They got pretty used to us. The babies looked grey and bald, with giant mouths after they hatched. Quickly they became fuzzy cute little mouths, and then finally one emerged.
Lucky to catch the first flight on camera, the little bird came on to the ledge on the birdhouse like his brothers and sisters before him, cleaned himself off, gave himself a good shake and got the nerve to follow his mamma.
And he did just that. I couldn’t find him at first, and he was right in front of me balancing on my handlebars like he had been doing it his whole life!
Then we watched him flutter towards his mamma, and on to the fence.
The next evening the parent birds kept a close eye on their first born baby bird, and fed him on the ground, or tree or wherever he ended up. They communicated with the bird out of nest with clicks and song, and here I was certain it was the male bird on look out while the other babies were taken care of by mamma until they quickly followed suit sometime during the next 2 days.
Then they were all gone, all four babies, mom and pop birdies, to fly free through the Languedoc, and the Plane trees we love so much. Lucky birds!
I miss their little chirps and tweets outside the bathroom window, and wish I had seen them all off.
They must have left in the early am for me not to see them go, as I made it a little ritual each morning before 7:00am to say good morning.
I looked around the yard, the neighbour’s rooftops, but no sign of the little bird family we enjoyed for the last few weeks. All I can hear are the other hundreds of birds nesting in the trees surrounding our house, chickadees in the rain gutters, and swallows singing high above my head.
Until next year birdies!
Any idea what kind of bird this may be?
That’s Hamori!
