OT: Crazy Tanagers

[Leaf]

When I walked down my front steps, I had an encounter with a very small chocolate brown bird, with a bright red head. It flew two circles around my head, darted off, then returned to hover very close to my face, almost hummingbird-like, as if were wanting a closer look to check me out.

I thought it was a Finch at first, because of it's very small size, but now after looking at pictures, i think maybe it is a Tanager. We have some Tanagers around here, although they look a little different and have the red but no brown. Very cool looking bird, whatever it is.

I was baffled by why it would want to fly so close to check me out, even entertained the thought, i'm such a nice guy even the wildlife around here loves me.

Later in the evening, when i opened the front door, i discovered what the heck was going on. It had built a nest in the front porch light fixture, only about two feet from the door.

I had removed the beveled glass panes from the fixture for cleaning, and forgot to do that, and forgot to put the glass panes back in. Now it's too late, until the eggs hatch and little guys get old enough to fly away.

I don't mind, i guess, as long as they don't drop anything on any visitors, but when i opened the door, it freaked out and ran into the wall several times before it flew low enough to leave the porch. I think she may have a terrible headache now.

What a nut, we have plenty of bushes and trees that would have been better locations for raising a brood of young redheaded nutbirds.

[Leaf]

Wow they just did it again, freaked out when i opened the door. I hope they get can used me using my front door.

[bigears]

At least it's better than a barn full of swallows that dive bomb your head every time you go into your barn! Move the nest before the eggs hatch.
They won't ever stop freaking out, and soon there will be more of them and those fledgelings can be noisy. John

[SeanHannifin]

We once had a bird build a nest in the bushes in front of our old house... by the time we noticed it, it already had four or five eggs in it.

So we had scrambled eggs for breakfast.

Actually, it didn't cause much trouble... unless you were mowing the lawn. The bird didn't like that, and would attack the head, so you had to wear a helmet for noisy activities.

After that, we always tried to destroy nests before there were eggs in them... (and before the bird came back)

[Leaf]

That's a very good suggestion, Sean.

But I like my eggs fried, so there would be the problem of finding little miniature strips of bacon and tiny coffee cups.:)

Bigears, I may try your sugestion of moving the nest, but afraid to do that myself. I'll call one of these animal rescues here, and see if they know someone who knows how to do that.

[snorlax]

Both of my kids are tanagers (just 15 and almost 19), and their craziness exasperates me.

Snor

[bigears]

It may sound a little hard hearted, but the nesting pair would probably still have time for another go at it this year if things didn't work out. Many species of birds can breed and birth twice in a season. Their eggs will be incubated usually for a couple of weeks, and the young stay in the nest about 10-12 days. That's a lot of poop on your porch.

[Thomas J]

We used to have nests of swallows in the space between our roof and siding. They would make a big mess, plus the chicks when they hatched made all kinds of noise just before daybreak at feeding time which woke everybody up in the family. I poked around the nest but got dive bombed by the mother.

So, I waited for the chicks to leave the nest then destroyed the nest with a high power hose.

Then I bought a fake owl and hung it in the place where the nest was. We have never seen another swallow near our house.

Try the fake owl - it really works.

Tom