Two female Cardinals in one nest
6 years ago
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- 6 years ago
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Females not nesting?
Comments (2)Jim - they may have already completed their 2nd brood in your location now and you are actually seeing some juveniles battling it out at the feeders with the females, as they look similar until the juvie males start growing their gorget "beards" and characteristic couple ruby feathers on their throats. The juvie males even have tail feathers with white tips like the females. I know I am seeing juvies out in force here after the one brood that recently fledged after my first females arrived in May. They supposedly would have nested about 6 - 8 weeks after first arriving in spring. So if there were any females that arrived in March or April (the humminbirds.net map shows all the first sightings in Georgia having happened in mid-late March), the 1st brood might have fledged in late May and if the females could reuse a nest, a 2nd could be coming out now. There are occassions where they can sometimes do a 3rd brood but the timing would need to be so that the babies are able to get up enough weight to go themselves in October. Banders in S. Louisiana are seeing molting and migration beginning now, so in your case, you may be done and the ones that you have seen in fall were northern migrator juvies and females....See MoreFemale cardinal stole Carolina wren egg from nest?
Comments (20)How wonderful , I would definatly send this story and photos to Cornell http://www.nestwatch.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=577 , It would be a great story to put on the Cornell nestwatch site. May even want to send to Birds and Blooms mag, they love these stories and we are talking about an unusual nesting in flowers!! I think you get some kind of compensation if B&B uses your story. www.birdsandblooms.com keep us up dated!...See MoreFierce winds caused rain soaked nest with two eggs
Comments (9)No good news to report. One of the three eggs had a tiny hole in it :(. I used a pancake turner and carefully removed the nest. Tossed the damaged egg and checked the inside of the box...no ants or wasps. I replaced the nest. I have seen both of the parent birds at the feeder, but never saw either of them enter the box. Will they return to the remainiing eggs after one of them has been 'killed'? Right now we have purple martins everywhere...eight pair have fledged young. Will they affect the nesting of the blues? Nest box is about 60-70' across from one another....See MoreA lost female and bullying behavior from new female
Comments (2)Diane, I have seen similar behavior two years in a row. The first time was 2 years ago. My original female had successfully fledged two broods and had four chicks six days old when a new female appeared, stalked her and actually fought with her until the original female left. The new female then followed Papa around, wing-waving and going wherever he went. He rebuffed her and even attacked her for three days. She tried repeatedly to get into the nestbox but Papa wouldn't permit it. Then, he accepted her and she proceeded to kill the chicks. Several were pecked to death and I found one alive in the grass, about 25 feet from the nestbox. I put it back but they refused to feed it and the next day the nest was empty. The new female then built a nest and successfully fledged four chicks. This new female stayed with Papa over the winter and the last year they successfully raised two more broods. Then, when she had five eggs in her third nest, a new female showed up and chased her off. Papa reacted much as he had before. I watched and waited for several days to see if the first one would return. When Papa finally accepted her she began building a new nest on top of the five eggs. The prior brood was still hanging around and they would beg from the new female the same as they would from Papa. When they did she would ignore them. If they persisted, she would fly up in their face and as soon as they were weaned, they were chased away. Dave...See More- 6 years ago
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kwryan47Original Author