i was reading this thread with interest. i have a situation where it appears i have 8 bluebirds who have hatched in one nest (thursday may 2, they were born). it may be 9, it's hard to tell. while monitoring the nest in late april i noticed what appeared to be eggs missing from the 3 that had been laid earlier in that week. the reality was that the eggs had been pushed down deeper into the nest and covered with pine straw. the mother kept coming back (may have been another species coming in and covering the egg with straw? i have seen no house sparrows here at all) and eventually she started laying again. turns out, there were 10 eggs total in this nest when she was done! i guess five from the first attempt and 5 after that. bottom line, 8 babies are in there now. i'm putting out meal worms twice a day and making sure there's lots of water nearby in the bird bath, and plenty of shelled sunflower seeds for the parents nearby in that feeder. anyone ever seen or heard of a situation like this?

It could have been the nest of American Crows and they left the debris on the ground. I checked the Birds of North America online site (I can't link to it because it's a subscription site, but I hope it's OK to quote from it) - Great site, well worth joining. If you participated in the GBBC you get a free trial subscription. Apparently crows sometimes pull living twigs off trees to make their nests, and they line them with various materials including bark strips. From Birds of North America online site: "Nest Construction Both sexes build nest; no information on relative share of each sex. Although both sexes bring in nest-lining material, female does more of detailed fine-tuning of nest lining than does male (CC). Builds nest mostly between 07:00 and 11:00 (S. S. Dickey in Gross 1946); early in morning, as early as 8 min after sunrise (Reaume 1987b); likely throughout day (CC), as in Northwestern Crow (Verbeek and Butler 1999). New nest distinguishable from old one by presence of fresh, dead twigs on ground below; these twigs fall accidentally and are never retrieved (Reimann 1942). In Encino, CA, and Stillwater, OK, pulls and breaks off living twigs from trees as well as picking up twigs from ground (CC). Gathers materials from different directions around nest tree, not from nest tree itself (Reaume 1987b). Helpers in Florida (Kilham 1989), Cape Cod, MA (Chamberlain-Auger et al. 1990), and in Oklahoma (CC) participated in bringing material to the nest. With 2 adults and several helpers bringing sticks, the congestion around the nest resulted in birds having to wait for a chance to get to the nest; helpers usually left their sticks for the female to work in (Kilham 1989). Period between completion of nest and egg-laying in Florida 6Â16 d (Kilham 1989), but Emlen (1942) reported building right up to egg-laying in California. Time to complete first nests in California 13 d (range 11Â17, n = 6 nests [Emlen 1942]; 10Â14 d [CC]); 5 and 9 d in 2 nests with helpers in Florida (Kilham 1989), 10Â14 d in Oklahoma (CC). Second nests take less time to build: 9 d (Emlen 1942); 6Â8 d (Graber et al. 1987); 5Â10 d in California and Oklahoma (CC). Structure And Composition Matter Bottom and sides consist mainly of dead branches, 0.6Â3.5 cm diameter (Reimann 1942) and usually Claire

Hey Lisa, I knew you would say something about the Oriole. I just had to have mine closer!!! I just noticed it yesterday. I was so thrilled. I was surprised that they would build so close to the feeders and all the birds that gather to eat. I hope I see the babies fledge. The parents are pretty tame. They will come and feed the babies when I am sitting on the deck. I did NOT bring you hosp.!!! They were there before I came to visit you. LOL I wouldn't do that to you :) Can I borrow your redtail? I have so many rabbits and they are eating all of my bushes I planted for the birds!!! Thinking about you in Iowa!! Karen

I do have females that look like that and I believe Kenn and Temple do as well. I have one female that has been around for years that has an all black head. All her markings are exactly like a male except very light dull orange and a duller black as well. I thought for years she was just a poorly colored male until I saw her nest building. I always thought it was funny that I didn't see any females around but always found nests. LOL Maybe someone else has some thoughts??? Cathy