2023 Nesting Season Overview Part One
Birds at the beach(Part 6)
Adult Mockingbird Removing A Fecal Sac!
Adult Mockingbird Waiting For A Fecal Sac!
Most nesting birds expel a fecal sac which is a mucous membrane that surrounds the feces that helps keep the nest clean!
Still 3 eggs, I can’t wait for them to hatch
Growing Up
Sleepy mockingbird babies
3 cute baby mockingbirds
The female mockingbird does a great job feeding the babies.
Northern Mockingbird nest still has 3 eggs
3 baby mockingbirds
Still 3 eggs
New baby mockingbirds
3 new baby mockingbirds at John Paul’s Landing Park. What’s weird is that there getting feathers but barely even have eyes!
3 new eggs!
Went to John Paul Landing today (the other nests were at Paul Rushing) and found a nest with 3 eggs and a nest with 3 babies! https://ebird.org/checklist/S144138424
The new nest
The male of nest #2 (with 2 eggs) is working on another nest in a tree next to it.
Infertile eggs?
Today is day 14 and the eggs have not hatched and do not appear to have been turned. The nest is damaged. Any ideas?
Only 2 nestlings now
Sadly there are only 2 nestlings left. The two weaker, smaller ones are gone from the nest. Any idea what happened? There used to be 4, then 3, and today 2.
3 baby mockingbirds
There are only 3 babies in the nest. I meant 3 yesterday. 1 baby hatched late and looked weak, he sadly probably died.
Still waiting…
It’s been 13 days and these eggs have not hatched. Could they be infertile?
Waiting…
Hopefully, these eggs hatch tomorrow, the nest was a bit damaged from a storm.
Such Sweet Mockingbirds!
Still 4 cute baby mockers.
Two Mockingbird Eggs
These eggs should hatch tomorrow or the day after!
They all hatched!
All 4 eggs hatched! Even the one that I thought was infertile.
Mockingbird Trying To Keep Its Nestlings Cool On A Very Hot In South Florida!
Mockingbirds Unusual Behavior!
Mockingbird Eggs
Only 4 or 5 more days until they hatch!!
Happy Birthday Mockingbird #3!
Baby Mockingbird #3 hatched today! I wonder if the 4th egg will hatch or if it’s infertile.
Waiting for baby mockers
These little eggs are due to hatch July 4th or 5th so they’re be 4th of July Mockingbirds!
Happy Birthday Baby Mockingbirds!!
Two have the four eggs hatched!! Still waiting for the other two. The other nest’s eggs are due to hatch between July 4th and 5th.
Mockingbird Nest with 4 eggs
I wonder when these eggs will hatch. The female has been doing a great job defending the territory from other mockingbirds.
Northern Mockingbird Nest
The male is always singing in a Pine Tree next to the nest. Can’t wait for the eggs to hatch!
Mockingbird Nest with 4 eggs.
Mockingbird Nest with 2 eggs
Northern Mockingbird Eggs ~ still here!
Sorry for the bad pictures. Even though the nest is only 5 feet up it’s kind of sideways so it’s hard to know where the eggs are when I can’t see them! I have to use a camera above the nest.
Mockingbird nest with 4 eggs
Still 4 eggs!
Mockingbird Nest #4 of 2023!!
Hopefully, these two nests don’t get eaten!!
Mockingbird Nest
The nest still has two eggs so shes only going to have two. The nest is pretty big for only two eggs, but I guess the babies will need lots of room.
New Mockingbird Nest!
We saw this nest get built and today it had 2 eggs!! Hope the Blue Jays won’t get them. The female was fighting another female about 20 feet from the nest. After she chased off the intruder she flew to the nest. The male was singing.
Northern Mockingbird Nest Failure
We went to visit the nest after 4 days of not seeing it. I had that bad feeling that the eggs would have been eaten (as has happened with all my nests). It was past 8 pm and I walked up to the nest. The mother wasn’t on it and thought that was a bad sign. I stuck the Canon Powershot EPLH 180 (the smallest of our 3 cameras and easy to hold above a nest) and there were the remands of yolk and shells, there was a shell on the ground under the nest. Why do my nests always get eaten? We heard Blue Jays in the trees nearby so I suspect a Bue Jay.
Northern Mockingbird Nest Part 3
Northern Mockingbird Nest Part 2
Mockingbird Nest Part 1
The nest has 4 eggs and both the parents were around the nest
The Mockingbird Nest now has four eggs!
The Mockingbird Nest now has four eggs! Sorry for the poor quality, it was almost 8 pm, and we had to go late due to it being 180 real feel today.
Northern Mockingbird Nest Part 3
Even more photos
Northern Mockingbird Nest Part 2
More photos of the nest
Northern Mockingbird Nest Part 1
Found a new nest on the 9th of June. Today the 11th, the nest had 2 eggs! Excited to watch the nest! It had to make multiple parts due to me getting tons of photos. It’s really hot (in the 100s) so I’m curious if the mother will sit on the eggs, or would they get too hot?
The Peep and Mrs. Peep!
The Peep and Mrs. Peep!! Today The Peep showed up with Mrs. Peep. He has been singing nights for some time and it finally paid off! I saw two mockingbirds on the fence, assuming it was a mother and baby, and snapped two quick photos before they flew away. Upon review of the photos, I saw that it was not a mother and fledgling, but The Peep and a female mockingbird! The female came back shortly after and shortly after that they both came back and did courtship displays. The Peep sat higher than her on a stake and then flew, colliding with her, locking claws and wings until The Peep broke free and fanned out his tail on the fence while running like a fledgling. Mrs. Peep watched then The Peep flew back on a stake next to her and flew to different stakes. Mrs. Peep then flew away and The Peep followed. Then a while after The Peep sang a short, song of a call between a yellowlegs and a normal Peep call and flashed his wings while he dive into a tree. Gunner )The Peep and Mrs. Peep!! Today The Peep showed up with Mrs. Peep. He has been singing nights for some time and it finally paid off! I saw two mockingbirds on the fence, assuming it was a mother and baby, and snapped two quick photos before they flew away. Upon review of the photos, I saw that it was not a mother and fledgling, but The Peep and a female mockingbird! The female came back shortly after and shortly after that they both came back and did courtship displays. The Peep sat higher than her on a stake and then flew, colliding with her, locking claws and wings until The Peep broke free and fanned out his tail on the fence while running like a fledgling. Mrs. Peep watched then The Peep flew back on a stake next to her and flew to different stakes. Mrs. Peep then flew away and The Peep followed. Then a while after The Peep sang a short, song of a call between a yellowlegs and a normal Peep call and flashed his wings while he dive into a tree. Gunner (an older mockingbird who is like a father to The Peep), of course, was supervising all of this.
Bluebonnet’s Fledgling
I have been watching Bluebonnet (Yes, all mockingbirds besides The Peep and The Adversary must have Texas names) gather nesting material, and I have heard her baby calling from the nest. Yesterday her baby fledged from the nest.
The First Baby Mockingbird of The Year!
This baby mockingbird was eating suet and then he jumped down to look for strawberries. After he left, his mother came and ate suet. I was curious who this female mockingbird was and it turned out that she is The Peep’s mother! We believe that The Peep’s father died due to his absence when The Peep was a fledgling. This means that this baby is The Peep’s half-brother!
Poor, poor Gunners!
Poor, poor Gunners! Why do all my nests get eaten?
More photos of the mockingbird nest
Northern Mockingbird Nest
Mrs. Gunner has a well-built cozy nest. I can’t wait for the eggs to hatch!
Cozy Mockingbird Eggs
Second visit from the same day as my other post. Mrs. Gunner does a great job at incubating and flipping her eggs. I wonder when her eggs will hatch.
Mrs. Gunner’s Nest
Mrs. Gunner. isn’t very protective. She sits on a perch or sign when I check her eggs and flies back after I have left her nest. She seems to like being famous on eBird and NestWatch!
Another visit to the mockingbird nest
Mrs. Gunner does a great job at sitting on her eggs, but she isn’t protective like mockingbirds are supposed to be. She flies away if we are anywhere near the nest.
Northern Mockingbird Nest
We were looking for nests, I didn’t think that we should check this nest because it was an old nest from last year, it turned out that Mrs. Gunner built a new nest on top of an old nest! We have seen the pair around those trees. I wonder when the eggs will hatch.
Northern Mockingbird On a Beautiful Palm Tree
Norther Mockingbird has whitish underparts and long tail. In flight, it becomes much flashier with large white patches on the black wings and tail. Pale eye.
Northern mockingbirds are perhaps best known for their remarkable singing abilities. This species can perform at least 39 songs as well as 50 call notes. Northern mockingbirds also have the ability to mimic sounds such as dogs barking or the songs of other birds.
Northern mockingbirds are solitary and territorial. During the nesting season, they are often very aggressive; they often attack other animals in defense of their territory, including animals as large as cats, dogs and humans
Northern Mockingbird
Nest Watch day 1-Northern Mockingbird actively building a nest.
Mrs. Mockingbird collecting palm fibers
Female Mockingbird with nesting material
Female Mockingbird who likes The Peep
A female mockingbird has been watching The Peep sing and today she decided to join him for breakfast. The Peep is to young to start a family (He needs to be at least 1 year old which he will be in May)
GBBC Backyard Birds
2022 Bird Nests part 2
2022 Bird Nests part 2.
Please correct me if I am wrong on any of these IDs.
2022 Bird Nests part 1
2022 Bird Nests part 1.
Please correct me if I am wrong on any of these IDs.
Backyard Birds part 1
So many backyard birds that I never see! Cowbirds, finches, chickadees, and more!
Cooper’s Hawk Chowing Down On a Northern Mockingbird
Brown-headed cowbird egg in mockingbird nest
This brown-headed cowbird egg was in a mockingbird nest. This photo was taken AFTER the 3 chicks fledged. There was one mockingbird egg that didn’t hatch. The cowbird egg is the smaller white egg on the right.
Baby Northern Mockingbirds
This nest was located in a front yard.
Feeder Birds
The Cardinals visit sometimes, the Chipping Sparrows visit in flocks of about 50 every day, the Yellow-rumped WArbler visits multiple time a day to eat suet, and The Peep visits every day.
Snow Geese, The Peep, Robin, Cedar waxwings.
We saw hundreds of Snow Geese. The Peep has been coming every day to eat peanut butter and attacked a robin and another young male Mockingbird that was trying to take his tree, we had a robin in our neighbor’s tree and we saw three Cedar Waxwings in The Peep’s tree.
Female Yellow-rumped Warbler, Chipping Sparrow, Mourning Doves, The Peep, Eastern Phoebe
Today was a great day for birding! We saw a new lifer: Brown Creeper. We also saw a Brown-headed Nuthatch, a female Yellow-rumped Warbler, a Pine Warbler, and more! Also, yesterday I saw 5 Purple Finches in a tree! (New lifer!)
Chipping Sparrows, Northern Cardinal, Cooper’s Hawk, The Peep, House Sparrow and Mourning Doves.
There are now about 30 Chipping Sparrows!
Feeder Birds
A few of our feeder birds
The Peep
The Peep loves his mealworm suet!
The Peep was practicing singing!
The Peep was practicing singing! He knows 3 songs!
The peep #2
Here are The Peep’s parents
The mockingbird who got attacked by the other mockingbirds looks so much better! Part 1
The Peep (As he has been named since the day I met him) looks so much better!
I figured out why he was so skinny and got attacked! Mockingbirds are supposed to have 2 weeks with their mother feeding them (Which he had) and 2 weeks of training from their father (The Peep didn’t get any training from his father which means he didn’t learn how to eat or defend himself.) The poor Peep would sit outside and scream all day at his mother and she wouldn’t feed him because she thought the father was taking care of him. The poor little guy. I’m so glad he’s looking better! He looked so bad before. (Much much worse than the pictures above.)
The hurt Mockingbird looks so much better!
The hurt mockingbird looks so much better. He loves peanut butter!
Mockingbird eating peanut butter
The mockingbird that was getting attacked looks much better. He loves peanut butter!
Mockingbird Nest Fate! 😭
Tweet and Barney nest fate… SO sad! 😭😭
Tweet and Barney are GONE!
We visited the nest later than we wanted today, (Almost dusk) we thought that the mother would be there. When we saw there was no mother we took the video of the nest and saw, it was empty! The nest wasn’t damaged so was probably a Blue Jay, Crow, or squirrel. Hopefully, we can find another nest to watch soon.
Injured Mockingbird Returns
Injured mockingbird eating suet. He gets attacked by the adult mockingbird. They dig their claws into him as you can see the black marks. I finally got some pictures to show how bad it is. The adults are really rough at him. They attack him in mid-air, chase him and dig their claws into him. They also scratch him with their claws too. 😟😢
Happy Birthday Barney!!
Barney hatched today! Now we’re waiting for Tweet! Happy Birthday Barney!! He has a few downy feathers on his back. His eyes are closed.
Hurt Mockingbird
We watched this mockingbird grow up from a newly fledged bird and watched his mother feed him. Lately, for the past couple of weeks, he gets attacked daily and the adults that attack him dig their claws into him. The poor bird couldn’t defend himself because he was very thin at the time. His feathers were matted and in horrible shape. He has gotten bigger since he has been visiting the peanut butter “swing” but still looks horrible. Any ideas? He has lost a lot of weight.
Help! What’s wrong with this mockingbird!
As can see from the photos this mockingbird is not in good shape. He gets attacked daily and the adults that attack him dig their claws into him. The poor bird couldn’t defend himself because he was very thin at the time. His feathers were matted and in horrible shape. He has gotten bigger since he has been visiting the peanut butter “swing”.
I also saw an adult mockingbird with no head feathers. It looks like a vulture! This isn’t normal in mockingbirds. (It is normal for blue jays and cardinals to lose their head feathers.) Please help! This is really concerning as there are lots of sick/injured birds in our yard!
Northern Mockingbird nest
Northern Mockingbird nest at Paul D Rushing Chain of Lakes. Update: Tweet and Barney haven’t hatched yet. I hope they hatch soon! This nest is near the side of the road in between two ditches.
Tweet and Barney
Tweet and Barney. Tweet is the lighter one and Barney is the darker one.
Mockingbird loves peanut butter!
This little mockingbird loves to eat the peanut butter I put out.
Tweet and Barney
Mockingbird nest with 2 eggs and used nest needs ID
Baby Mockingbird eating peanut butter
Baby mockingbird eating peanut butter.
The worst has occured…
Last night one of my worst nightmares came true, not only did I lose all of the robin’s young… but also all of the mockingbird nestlings. I was walking by the robin’s bush and saw needles scattered everywhere. There was one dead baby in the bush, and the bottom of the nest was shredded. I came to find piles upon piles of feathers, with the adult female robin clearly being dead. Knowing a predator had been around, I rushed to check the mockingbird nest, as the adult male had been screaming the entire time I have been home. I have never had a mockingbird nest before and I was thrilled to watch these hatchlings grow up. Sadly, the nest was torn out of its place and all the hatchlings were gone.
THE GOOD NEWS: all song sparrow babies fledged, my 5 bluebird nestlings are well, and I still have two other robin nests, built quite high, that are being raised and are safe. Nature can be cruel and unforgiving, but that’s part of what makes each successful brood so exciting and warming.
Don’t Mess With Texas
A little Texas Mockingbird learning to be a proper state bird and enjoying some yummy mealworm suet.
Northern Mockingbirds Hatch
The Northern Mockingbirds have hatched! All 4 are healthy and the adults have been quite aggressive and territorial to the other songbirds.
Mockingbird Nest
we visited this nest and it was destroyed.
Unknown nest outcome
On June 9th we discovered a mockingbird nest with four eggs. We visited it again on June 14th. We visited a 3rd time on June 29th and were surprised to see the destroyed nest. Do you think that the eggs hatched and the babies fledged? We had a really bad storm with almost 60-mile winds.
Northern Mockingbird Nest Progression
A northern mockingbird nest found at 2 eggs, a few days later it had progressed to 4.
FEED ME!
Mockingbird fledgling yelling at its mother to feed it.
Fledgling Mockingbird
A baby Mockingbird. Trying to hunt for insects, wing-flashing. In case you’re wondering what the ‘toy’ was, she was playing with a clip for holding a bag of bread closed.
Mockingbird Nest
I first thought the nest was empty. I did as was suggested by other nest watchers and took a video of the nest. Was surprised to see four Mockingbird eggs. Was close to the dog park.
The Joy of being Little!
This is one of my favorite photos of a baby Northern Mockingbird. It’s as if this little one was modeling for a photoshoot and gave me some of the cutest poses. Hope you smile as much as I did when seeing this little one!