GRACKLES AND FINCHES NESTING AT HOME

     I enjoy experiencing purple grackles and house finches nesting every year in our New Holland, Pennsylvania suburban neighborhood.  They are there partly because of the many planted coniferous trees, particularly arborvitae, around home.  Small, loose colonies of grackles raise young in arborvitae and spruces with their densely packed needles, while individual pairs of finches hatch babies in the same trees, and on supports under the awning over our deck, as a pair did in the year 2022.   

     House fiches are permanent residents here, but the grackles arrive here sometime in March, depending on the weather.  Immediately, the grackles search for invertebrate food on lawns and in fields, and places among the conifers to raise youngsters.  And they get down to nursery building by late March, each pair creating an open cradle of grass among evergreen twigs and needles.  

     Both these bird species are attractive.  Purple grackles are iridescently purple and blue with long tails and yellow irises.  The handsome males are a bit larger and more shiny than their mates.  Sparrow-sized house finches are pale-gray with darker streaking.  The males also have pink on their heads, chests and wings.  And males sing cheery songs, starting in warm afternoons in February and continuing through summer, to establish nesting territories and attract mates for rearing offspring.

     Young grackles hatch early in May and fledge their cradles by the third week in May.  I see parent grackles constantly shuttling invertebrate food to their young in their nests, and removing white sacs of excrement to guard against parasites and predators.

     Baby grackles are vulnerable to egg and baby-eating crows, raccoons and other predators.  Fledged young and adults are preyed on by house cats, Cooper's hawks, great horned owls and others.

     By early June, surviving fledged grackles, and their parents, leave our neighborhood.  They, and other grackles, form roving flocks in farmland where they ingest a variety of invertebrates, and grain.  Eventually, all those grackles drift south to find reliable sources of food through winter.

     This spring, I watched a pair of house finches build a nursery of tiny twigs and dried grasses on a support under an awning.  I saw them brood the eggs and feed the babies invertebrates and seeds until they fledged their cradle.  Each pair of house finches usually attempts to raise a second brood of young during the summer.

     Late in summer, I see several young and post-breeding house finches perched as look-outs on the very tips of tall Norway spruce trees on our lawn.  And I see house finches wintering in shrubby hedgerows between fields.  There they have shelter from cold wind and sharp-shinned hawks, and food in the form of weed and grass seeds.  

     Every species of life has its interesting story.  We only need to watch for those creatures to enjoy their life histories, wherever they may be.   

       

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