BIRDS TAKE PARENTING SERIOUSLY
Birds migrate from Latin America to North America to become parents of a new generation. Resident birds in our backyards have been busy since March pairing up with mates to become parents of new born chicks.
Parenting is a responsibility birds take seriously. Mockingbird parents are militantly serious, a fact you’ll find out when approaching their nest. A parent mocker will fly at you with feet spread like a ninja warrior and mercilessly attack your head.
The feisty mocker will even fend off a big predatory bird like a crested caracara coming too close to the nest.
Red-shouldered hawks will quickly combat people getting near a nest. A fellow once told me he couldn’t get to the driveway without being attacked by a hawk nesting in a nearby tree.
A killdeer puts its life at stake for the sake of the nest, which is a simple but inconspicuous scrape in the ground. Yet draw too close to the nest and the bird will race along the ground screaming and dragging a feigned broken wing to lure you to get the parent not the eggs.
Meanwhile, songbirds construct amazingly complex nests to protect eggs. Recently, I inadvertently peered into a cavity holding the nest of a house sparrow. I know, the birds we love to hate.
The nest was an architectural marvel, with a cylindrical structure intricately woven with twigs, leaves, grass, blue jay feathers, pieces of cloth, and stray strings. At the bottom of the elongated entrance hole was an inconspicuous alcove cradling a newly hatched chick.
Songbirds, such as loggerhead shrikes, have a hectic time foraging for food to stuff down the throats of chicks born blind, naked and helpless but squawking, as all babies do, until fed.
Even when shrike chicks have fledged enough to venture from the nest, they may land on the ground where parents continue to feed and protect them.
Chicks of black-bellied whistling ducks come into the world with eyes open, a coat of down feathers and limited ambulatory ability. But parents still shelter the chicks as they grow full body feathers and strong legs.
Few sights are more exemplary of bird parenting than a female duck with chicks appearing like puffballs scooting across the ground behind her as she clucks to them about food locations and dangerous alligators.
Email Gary Clark at texasbirder@comcast.net.
Baby birds
Precocial chicks, like ducks, hatch covered in down feathers with eyes open and may venture into nest perimeter in a few days but follow hen farther away to learn to feed alone.
Altricial chicks, like mockingbirds, hatch naked with eyes closed and depend on parents for food until gaining flight feathers in about 12 days.
Fledglings are young songbirds with sufficient flight feathers to leave nest but temporarily dependent on parents for food.
Do not rescue a fledgling unless it is in danger. Parents are usually teaching it to fly, find food and avoid predators.
Protect fledgling from dogs and cats until parents can attend to it.
Advice at Texas Wildlife Rehabilitation Coalition hotline 713-468-8972 or at twrcwildlifecenter.org/resources/foundan-animal.