I think there is a French term for this - Moq? (Just kidding, I don't want the bluebird forum to turn in to an "adult" website). But seriously, the extra male could be an unpaired offspring from last year, helping out. It happens, but rarely. Usually the male will chase the youngsters away once nesting season begins. More often, young from the same year's brood might be seen helping out. But I have seen an adult female help raise another's brood. Maybe this happens more than we think, and we just don't see it as "another helper" thinking it is the same adult unless we see them both at the same time as you have. Without name tags or a guest list, we will never really know for sure. Bluebars

It's a baby cardinal! And it just finally left the artificial ficus while it's parents called to it from a nearby tree! It's little "mohawk" is in, and the colors are that of a baby cardinal and not a cowbird. It just was very reluctant to leave the nest. Yesterday, it began to crawl out further onto the branches of the ficus, chip-chipping and a parent would answer back. The parents have spent so much time with this particular fledgling...I have to wonder about the safety of the other two. They're still out there. The male comes flying out from under our window shrubs when blackbirds are in the front yard and issues his "alert." What a relief...but now, that little chipmunk from next door! I started tossing seed balls into their own shrubbery to keep the chipmunk away and am using live mealworms and safflower. Might have to take down the suet, since the cowheads/blackbirds seem to like it far too much and come into territory where the fledglings are hiding. I read they will fly within 20 days. It's now 14 days since I first noticed the birds were hatched. They could have hatched before I saw them. So when should they begin to fly? I know the parents do stay with them and "train" them.. But that chipmunk! Thank you all for responding to my "cardinal adventure." What a lovely song they sing. : ) ...And I just watched the little guy hop off with both parents very near. I don't hear them now. Just so they're all safe!

Ok, these are wild birds, not pets. They are cute and we become very attached to those we monitor closely but you have to remember they are wild, they are not tame and shouldn't be tame. You can do blowfly inspections of the nests very easily without holding one of the baby birds. Besides the fact that blowflies normally feed at night and drop off the babies and go into the nest during the day. Just because you haven't caused any major problems yet doing this doesn't mean it won't happen. Monitoring nests is done to prevent problems but there are guidelines that should be followed and checking them when they are close to fledging without suspecting a problem is really a very self centered thing to do. Photo ops are not a reason to open a nestbox when you could cause them to fledge prematurely. Yes books can be rewritten but you seem to have forgotten they were written from experience. I have often checked nests every day up until day 13 then I have stopped and I don't touch the babies to do checks. Once, just once I did a blowfly inspection of a nest on day 14 and you know what happened? Later that day one of the 14 day old nestlings fledged and he couldn't fly a lick and ended up spending the night in our garage as we didn't know he was there until the next morning. I put him back in the box which then cause another to try to fledge and that one couldn't fly either, also the first baby fledged again. I had to put a hole reducer on the box to keep them in there and I hated to do that. Had I not opened that box on day 14 (and I did not touch the babies, just inspected the nest and lifted it slightly) I would not have had to put the reducer on. I took the reducer off on day 16 and they all fledged, one still couldn't fly very well though but the other three could. They did all make it though but it was lucky cause I know that one spent at least that first night on the ground. Fledgling day could have been way later had I not opened that box and the babies would not have been put in harms way because of something I did. I now do all my blowfly inspections (of the nest not the hatchlings) during the first 12 days from hatching and around day 7 I take a turner and lift the nest up and brush out the bottom dust on the nestbox floor, this is where the larva would be when they are tiny. I really think you are setting yourself up for heartbreak if you cause something bad to happen to one of your nestings because of unneeded monitoring and touching the babies. I hope you don't but you really might one of these days. Good luck to you and your Blues! Donna

I keep stopping by this thread to see the wonderful photos of the adult tenderly caring for the irresistible babies - but all those gaping mouths caused a small problem for me. I had a dentist appointment soon after viewing the pics and I started thinking of what we look like to a dentist, with our mouths wide open. Do they ever get the urge to drop a worm in our mouths? I'm afraid I'll never go to a dentist again without thinking about this. Great photos though. Claire