Looks like maybe an Eastern Phoebe took over this old Barn Swallow nest. I would expect Barn Swallow eggs to have red-brown speckles on them, whereas Phoebe eggs are white. Check out this page, and see if your bird matches: http://nestwatch.org/learn/focal-species/eastern-phoebe/. Great idea to use the mirror pole to NestWatch. Cheers, Robyn
Thank you so much for the information. We thought it might not be a Barn Swallow but could not figure out what it was. We had never heard of an Eastern Phoebe. But you were right, it matches perfectly. We had a cow bird take over the nest last year and he killed all the other fledglings. So we are keeping a close watch on it this year. So far so good.
Looks like maybe an Eastern Phoebe took over this old Barn Swallow nest. I would expect Barn Swallow eggs to have red-brown speckles on them, whereas Phoebe eggs are white. Check out this page, and see if your bird matches: http://nestwatch.org/learn/focal-species/eastern-phoebe/. Great idea to use the mirror pole to NestWatch. Cheers, Robyn
Thank you so much for the information. We thought it might not be a Barn Swallow but could not figure out what it was. We had never heard of an Eastern Phoebe. But you were right, it matches perfectly. We had a cow bird take over the nest last year and he killed all the other fledglings. So we are keeping a close watch on it this year. So far so good.