House Finches

It started when we got a fushia plant in a hanging basket. "It's kinda cold." Mom said, bringing the basket inside. That evening, she was going to put it back outside when she noticed the early beginnings of a tiny nest!

Quickly she put it back outside, and we all wondered if the birds would return. The nest morning they did, and I quickly recognized the little birds as being a pair of House Finches. They worked constantly at that nest, and it became bigger and bigger, and more elaborate.

The two finches were very noisy while they built the nest, and the pair kept calling back and forth. It was cute to hear Kiki chirping to them; she can imitate a finch or a sparrow very well.

It wasn't long before we saw that the mother bird sitting on the nest, so we decided to have a look. She had lain an egg! It was very, very small, and a pale blue hue.

A day or two later, I checked the nest again. What I saw shocked me. Although the parents were obviously House Finches, the egg was medium sized, and it was white with abundant brown speckles, a far cry from the tiny, blue eggs that House Finches normally lay.

There was only one thing it could be- a parasite egg!

Usually people think of parasites as revolting invertebrates that either live on (like a tick) or in (like a a tapeworm) a human or animal (the "host"). A Cowbird is, obviously, a parasite of a rather different sort.

Cowbirds never make nest of their own, rather, they choose a nest of a different sort of bird and lay an egg in that. Sadly, the Cowbird chick often kills the chicks once they have hatched, or the mother destroys the other eggs.

That evening, the mother Cowbird returned and pecked up the Finch egg, killing the un-hatched chick. It was sad, but also interesting.

The next day the mother Finch laid another egg. After a few days there were four finch eggs and the Cowbird egg.

A couple days ago the Cowbird hatched. It was ugly, but sort of cute, as it threw back its head and opened its tiny beak, begging for food from his "mother". Being a parasite, I gave him the name of "Ticky".

Yesterday, a finch hatched. It was even tinier then the Cowbird. That evening brought the hatch count up to three chicks.

But this morning, the two Finches writhed around hungrily, but the Cowbird lay still. He appeared to be dead. Now, there are three writhing chicks, but they seem to be all finches, as though one just hatched, and one un-hatched egg. I don't know if one of the chicks is actually Ticky (it's hard to tell with them all writhing around).

Only time will tell, I guess. It's been fun seeing the tiny chicks, and I will keep posting about them (and keep trying to get some decent pictures! All the ones I've tried to take of the nest and its occupants were very blurry.)