Bird Videos Continued

By Mike Coll, Preserve Manager

Like many people I tend to interact with the things that are most available to me. Last year I placed a nest box under the eve near the entrance to my office and this year the box has been occupied by Tree Swallows. Perhaps unfortunately for this pair, I have taken to photographing them in various ways (although they don’t seem to mind too much and after all I did give them a house.)

Most recently I used some Velcro tape to attach my iPhone to the front of the box. The parents are currently bringing food to the young birds at a furious pace. In the video you can see that the female is initially uncertain about the new apparatus attached to her house. She begins by making a bunch of passes near the iPhone without entering the nest box. Each time she passes the hungry young birds chirp a bit louder.  The female (who is more brown colored than the male) eventually becomes brave enough to take a few shots at the iPhone and then she alights on the branch that I have attached to the box as a perch for them. Soon after that the male (much more blue) arrives with a mouthful of insects, one of which escapes, and then the young are fed and the process continues.

This is another video of the same adults feeding the young from the reverse perspective. It is not noteworthy except for the pace of the feeding, which the pair continues all day everyday. In a four-minute video the young are fed four times (by the male @ 0:06, 1:07, and 3:40 and by the female @ 2:15).

There is also an appearance by a Tufted Titmouse who flutters past the box at about 1:23. The Titmouse seemed to be hunting hornet nests that were being built under the same eve.