Subject: Re: When wren chicks leave the nest
Date: Jun 13 10:08:45 1998
From: Peggi & Ben Rodgers - woodduck at mbay.net


At 10:52 AM 6/11/98 -0700, you wrote:
>Hi Tweeters, My wife and I have been watching--from a distance of course--a
>birdhouse in our back yard where a couple of Bewick's wrens have been
>feeding a new batch of chicks......snip.....

But how far could they have gone on the first day
>out of the nest? Do they fly great distances right away? Or would they
>have been feet away, roosting on a hidden branch. If they were nearby, why
>couldn't we see the parents flying in with food? Or is it possible, that
>something took all three or four of the chicks overnight? Any tweeters with
>coments or suggestions of answers?
>
Hi Paul,

I'm not sure about wren chicks, but I do know many species of passerines do
vacate the nest as soon as the baby has fledged. Jays, towhees and robins
are just a few.

Basically, as soon as it's feathered, the chick leaves the nest and spends
the remaining time prior to learning flight skills on the ground being cared
for by the parents. In the case of robins, the father usually cares for the
young on the ground and the mother the young left in the nest. Both jay
parents care for the young on the ground as well. Usually they will vacate
the nest and not return taking the baby off into the bushes. Some towhees
have been known to have chicks in two separate backyards flying from one to
another with food.

This is when we get alot of babies that are "abandoned". Many are not but
do look that way as they wander cluelessly in search of their parents (I saw
a young robin doing this across a street two days ago - I stopped and shooed
it into the bushes).

Hope this answers your questions.

Peggi
Ben & Peggi Rodgers
Pacific Grove, CA (right next to Monterey)
USA
woodduck at mbay.net



"A bird does not sing because it has an answer,
It sings because it has a song"