Fledglings

Over the last few weeks the garden has been inundated with fledglings. It’s been really nice to watch so I thought I’d share a few photos. Many were taken in a rush so not all of them are perfectly crisp.

The blue tits are getting to grips with landing on our window feeder. We had quite a few little birds fly into our windows (repeatedly) in an attempt to land and feed. One of the funniest things to watch is when they land on the feeder but haven’t yet learned that they don’t need to flap their wings once perched.

Many of these little birds come to the feeder in groups of 2 or more. One morning I’d left the window open and didn’t expect them to feed because of it. However it didn’t put them off and we even had one fledgling walk along the latch towards the living room. Luckily for us it turned back.

The fledgling below spent the best part of a day sunbathing.

Alot of the fledglings are still relying on their parents for food. Scott first noticed this when he saw a female blackbird feeding its young. The parents work really hard and I can see why there was non stop activity on our feeder when the eggs would have hatched.

Since then we’ve learnt the sound of a fledgling calling for food and have spotted a few other birds doing the same, like the blue tit below who had developed a taste for sunflower seeds.

The parent was flying to the feeder, taking a sunflower seed, then flying back, shelling the seed and feeding the fledgling its contents.

I’ve managed to get a few videos of our window feeder. After a bit of flapping this bird managed to land in the seed tray and used the feeder like a climbing frame.

The fledglings are much less shy than their parents who fly away at the slightest movement. They will happily land and feed whilst we are close to the window.

And that’s all our birdie news for now. Can anyone help me identify the birds in this post? I’m afraid my bird knowledge is limited to blue tits, blackbirds and chaffinches.