The cardinals took flight yesterday (June 2). Early in the morning, we noticed that the baby birds were very restless. They were moving around in the nest a lot more than usual. One jumped up on the nest edge and started stretching his wings. This gave the others more room to stretch as well. Having watched cardinals raise another nest full of baby birds earlier this spring, we knew that this sudden restlessness meant that they would fly today.
The first baby cardinal jumps to the edge of the nest.
As the little ones prepared to leave the nest, the mother kept coming back with big fat bugs to feed the little ones. This will give them the energy needed to make the flight. At one point the mother brought a large moth to feed the baby birds. It was so large that she tried to put it in each mouth only to find that none of the babies could swallow it. Finally she jumped to a limb, chewed it up and ate it herself (she needs some energy as well!).
The mother bird arrives with some food - a moth.
Mother cardinal tries to feed a baby bird before its first flight.
The bug was too big for the first bird. Let's try this one! Notice how the first bird still wants it.
As the mother watched from higher in the tree one jumped out of the nest onto a limb and the mother bird took him step by step through the process of flying to trees that surround the creek at the back of our lot where the male bird waited. They did this with each bird, one-by-one until they were all safely together again so the parent birds could continue to watch over them and feed them. The process took about 6 hours. The photos below show how they did it.
The first baby bird jumps out on a limb.
Mother bird takes a wary look at me before she flies to get more food.
Mother bird jumps down on a plant shelf just below the tree with the nest in it, encouraging the baby to make the leap.
The baby bird follows the lead and jumps to the plant shelf.
The mother bird then flies over to some patio furniture and chirps at the baby to follow.
The baby follows again.
The baby flies under a patio table.
Mother and baby bird have a conference before proceeding.
Not everything went according to plan. This is not easy!
Mother looks down at baby as she leads it back toward the back yard.
Mother feeds baby one last time before they head out toward the trees surrounding the creek.
The mother bird gets ready to lead the baby bird across the back yard to the creek.
