Many of Georgia’s year-round birds — cardinals, bluebirds, Carolina chickadees, mockingbirds and others — are raising their second broods of the year now and may produce a third and even a fourth before the season ends.
On the other hand, many of the migratory songbirds — vireos, warblers, tanagers and others — that nest here in spring and summer will have time for only one brood and possibly two before heading back to winter homes in Latin America. Some will begin heading south as early as July.
It all means that a variety of bird nests are being built — or already have been built — now across Georgia.
Perhaps the most complex nests belong to orchard orioles, which nest statewide, and Baltimore orioles, which nest only in extreme northeast Georgia. Female orioles weave hanging pouch nests of grass suspended from the end of limbs 10 to 25 feet high. Famed ornithologist John James Audubon said the orchard oriole’s tightly woven nests almost “defy the eye of man.”
Mourning doves, on the other hand, make such flimsy platforms of twigs that they can barely hold eggs. Barn swallows paste their nests of mud and straw onto beams in barns or under bridges. Chimney swifts glue half-saucer shaped nests of twigs to the inside of brick chimneys.
Some 25 species nest in cavities — woodpeckers, bluebirds, titmice, nuthatches, chickadees, Carolina wrens, wood ducks, owls and others. Kingfishers nest underground, digging long tunnels into stream banks.
Many migratory warblers and several common backyard birds build familiar cup-shaped nests of straw, twigs, leaves — even snake skins. The tiniest nests are made by the tiniest birds — ruby-throated hummingbirds and blue-gray gnatcatchers, which use tree lichens and spiderwebs for their nests.
Some birds — killdeer, whippoorwills, nighthawks, wild turkeys, vultures — make no nest: They simply lay their eggs in depressions scraped on the ground. Ovenbirds build nests resembling tiny Dutch ovens on the ground.
IN THE SKY: From David Dundee, Tellus Science Museum astronomer: The moon will be full on Wednesday — the “Planting Moon.” Mercury and Venus are very low in the west just after dark. Mars is very low in the southwest at dark and sets in the west a few hours later. Jupiter and Saturn rise in the east at about midnight.
Charles Seabrook can be reached at charles.seabrook@yahoo.com.
