Thursday, June 27, 2013

Cardinal Crash

young cardinal

Our pair of Cardinals have a couple of youngsters that paid their first visit to the bird feeder yesterday.  They are about two thirds as large as the parents with very interesting coloration. 

On-line bird books suggest that they are males – they are not as brown as their mother, but not nearly as red as their dad. In fact, instead of being brilliant red, their brighter feathers are a flaming orange.

As we were watching them, we witnessed a near disaster.  One of the young ones flew directly into the big picture window on the back of our 5th wheel trailer, and dropped like a rock!

After he had laid there for what seemed like minutes, the mother bird flew down to check on him.  She moved around him and prodded him with her beak with no result.  Finally, as she flew away, he lifted his head.

A minute or two later, I went out to check on him.  As I approached, he didn’t fly – didn’t even try – but he spread his wings and ran/hopped away into some underbrush at the edge of our property.  At that point, I decided it was better to leave him alone.

We haven’t seen him again, but I’m pretty sure that once the cobwebs cleared he was going to be okay. 

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