Three Little Birds

My apologies for not having posted the sequel to my bird story before now! I have no good reasons just poor excuses.

These weeks of observing the family of Sabiá's was very interesting and entertaining. It also was a learning experience, teaching me about the life of birds and reminding me many times about God's care for His children.

I love this picture of one bird with his "arm" wrapped around his sibling.

Eyes are still closed but you can see how big those eyes are! And look at the adorable downy feathers forming on the head and back.

Quickly growing and filling up the nest...

 As soon as they hear their mother's "cluck" or sense movement on the nest, their beaks fling open.

 Look how tall they can stretch their neck...

 ...and how wide they can open their mouth!

 Both mother and father worked all day long to feed their triplets. I was impressed with their diligence, determination and dedication!

I was able to get lots of close-ups of the parents. Here's one...

Ever get the staredown by a bird? She always kept her eye on me 

but never once did she try to attack me. I think she knew she could trust me.

Ok, now the wing feathers are forming. They are about 4 days old here.

 We're really looking alert now! Junior is 13 days old.

 As I had done a couple other times, I gently rubbed his head...

But this time, all of a sudden, he jumped up and flew out of the nest! Then Little Brother and Little Sister followed suit! There were several moments of scurrying around and yelling as we sought to keep our dog from getting them. Needless to say, I was not taking pictures during those moments!

We tied up Morgan...but you can tell where her attention is. She was definitey on "red alert". By the way, she isn't normally black and brown, she's really black and white! She's been in the digging mood recently...

I spent the rest of that day in the backyard, keeping watch over the 3 little birds and making sure they didn't wander too close to Morgan.

Sometimes they stayed in one place for a long time.

But they usually went off to find a new place to wait...

And mommy always had to hunt for them. She always found them, of course,

 because they called for her every few minutes.

Oh, honestly Junior, are you still hungry??

Long story shortened...Morgan got one of them that night. Yes, I know,

she looks so totally innocent. Not.

 

And the next day another one fell into the blue tub which had water in it.

Death by drowning.

That left the last one to fend for himself.

I named him George. Doesn't he look like a George?

 

 

He stuck around for 3 more days, spending most of his time in a little alleyway behind the house which we'd blocked off so Morgan couldn't get to him. He liked to sit up on the windowsill and just wait for Mommy to come feed him...

 

On Friday morning we saw no signs of him (nor signs that Morgan got him!) so we're assuming and hoping that he finally managed to fly high enough to escape to freedom.

 

"Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young..." (Psalm 84:3a)

 

"He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry."

 

(Psalm 147:9)

 

"Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.

But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows."

(Matthew 19:29-31)

Dashed Hopes Rise Again

All that hooplah, excitement and happy hopes about the expectant bird...fell to the ground, literally, a few days after I wrote about it. 

On the 12th day (Sunday) I checked the nest. This is what I saw...

Only one egg! What happened??

  I looked around on the ground and finally saw this...

which really made me sad.

The next day I checked the nest...

Where did the other egg go?? I have no idea. Someone suggested that sparrows may have done some of this but I think it was something a little bit bigger to be able to haul it out of the nest, don't you?

 

And then...

...a few days later I noticed that a sabiá was flying in and out of a tree just outside my bedroom window. I checked and, sure enough, she had made a nest. This might in fact be the same one that made the first nest. One reason I think so is that this one also lets me get pretty near the nest, like she's used to "the lady with the camera". 

She makes a hiding "wall" with her tail. Beautiful detail (no pun intended)!

Ever the watchful eye.

As soon as she gave me a chance, I took a picture to see how many eggs there were.

Once again, there were two. So beautiful. So perfect.

 

 About 3 days later I checked again and....

...there were three eggs! Hey, that momma means business.

And so do does this one. I plan to do all I can to help protect these beautiful creations of His.

That includes shooing away the sparrows...hawks...whatever and whoever is her enemy.

 

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, But when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.

(Proverbs 13:12)

 

Expectant Mother

No, of course, I'm not talking about me, not even about any of our daughters. It's about a Sabiá (same genus as the American Robin), a bird who made a nest in a planter on an outside wall. The Sabiá is Brazil's national bird. Here she is about a month ago. I suppose she was trying to come up with her nest-building plans...

I kind of forgot about her but three weeks later I suddenly noticed the nest. She apparently thought there wasn't enough decoration there so she added a long, dry stick! Fortunately, the succulent plants there don't need much watering!

At this point, there were no eggs there yet. But in just a couple days I was rewarded with the sight of two perfectly beautiful ones, light blue with spots of brown.

 

It has been rather like seeing a new flower bloom...I can't stop taking pictures! "Sabbie" looks so cute and content there in her nest. And daddy helps, too, I discovered one day. I just don't know which is which. They take turns setting on the eggs. Never mind that the encyclopedea says that only the female does that!

A side view. Notice how she always keeps her eyes on me...

 At first, she would fly away when I got about 2 meters from the nest. Now she lets me get a little bit closer (although I take these pictures with zoom). I'm wondering, though, if she'll begin to attack me when the babies hatch. We shall see!

So it's been about 10 days since I first saw the eggs although I don't know exactly when they were laid. But since they are supposed to take 13 days to hatch, I should be seeing these new babies in not more than 3 days!

Ahh! God's creation is marvelous and truly deserves our admiration and praise.

I will praise You, O Lord, with my whole heart;
I will tell of all Your marvelous works.

(Psalm 9:1)