A mother’s work is never done. That’s true for birds, too
What would we do without mothers? And what would songbirds do without mothers?
We honor our mothers in May, at a time, coincidentally, when female birds are busy laying eggs and feeding chicks.
That’s not to detract gratitude from human mothers. It’s only a reminder that birds have mothers, too.
Female songbirds live an average of eight to 12 years and breed about five months a year during their lifespan. Many have a shortened lifespan due to disease, predation by hawks and cats, collisions with windows and other hazards.
Still, motherhood for a female songbird starts after selecting a mate — or breeding with her lifelong mate. She then chooses a nesting spot, often picked out from several alternative sites offered by the male. Then they begin gathering nesting materials.
The female is the principal designer and builder of the nest. But construction depends on the real estate where she can best conceal and camouflage the nest.
For example, a female northern cardinal typically builds a nest deep inside a shrub or on low-level tree branches that will conceal the nest
within the leaves and twigs. The female weaves a cup-shaped nest using such items as grass stems, twigs, tree bark, spider webs and scraps of fabric.
The exterior nest will resemble a slapdash bundle of twigs. In reality, the female will have engineered a sturdy, neatly woven structure with an interior bed of thin twigs virtually knitted into a cushion to support her eggs and chicks.
A female Carolina wren selects nesting real estate in places as varied as tree cavities, tangled vines, old shoe boxes and hanging flower baskets. She and the male work in concert to weave a domed-shaped nest out of pine needles, twigs, leaves, grasses, stray cloth and other items. They construct a camouflaged entrance hole on the side of the nest.
Female songbirds typically lay one egg shortly before sunrise on successive days or every other day until they’ve produced a clutch of three to four eggs. Females incubate eggs by gently sitting on them against a spot of bare skin on the breast or abdomen called a brood patch.
Chicks hatch in about 14 days, and both parents begin feeding them.
But females must continually rebuild worn or damaged parts of the nest, clean out fecal material and tirelessly tend to chicks. For women and female birds, “A mother’s work is never done.”