While doing honey-dos in the yard over the weekend some of our resident catbirds babies decided to fledge early. When I notice this guy he was at the edge of our garden pond and one of the parents was scolding him. I’m guessing to keep him from falling in. The parents soon herded all of the babies into some shrubs in our yard and began to feed them berries. It took about an hour but the babies made their way to the tops of the shrubs and by the next day where still there, mom and dad hard at feeding and protecting. I’m going to guess that one of the neighborhood cats forced them out early and because our yard is a ‘no-cat’ zone they where safe at least from the cats in the backyard. The coopers and sharpie that some times come through are free to do what they do. That was Sunday and when I left for work this morning they where working on flying maneuvers.
Love that we can see the big berry the parent is stuffing in the fledgling's mouth in the first pic! Glad they didn't end up as prey when they were on the ground.
That berry shot is really cool. This summer I saw a Kingbird stuff a raspberry into the beak of a nestling....it spit the thing up with bits of berry flying all over!
Had the pleasure to watch 2 catbird parents this summer. Boy, are they ever noisy. I never did stick around to see the young ones. After seeing your photo, sure wish I had. Baby birds are too cute.
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Had the pleasure to watch 2 catbird parents this summer. Boy, are they ever noisy. I never did stick around to see the young ones. After seeing your photo, sure wish I had. Baby birds are too cute.
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