We recently had a pair of songsparrows build a nest in our front garden. It was tucked between daylilies, hostas, and wild geraniums. I had some help identifying the birds because I wasn’t sure. They are identified by the stripes and the darker patch on their chest.
They have a pretty sound, which is probably why they are called songsparrows. You can see a short video someone took, and hear their sound here.
They build their nests close to the ground. The nest is made of grass, weeds, leaves, and finally it is lined with fine grass and hair and down. It looks and feels very soft inside the nest.
They usually lay 3-5 eggs. Our bird laid 4 eggs. They were brown and had reddish-brown patches. I took this picture with a long lens on my camera.
It takes about 12-13 days for the eggs to hatch. We watched it for over a week, and then one day discovered that there were no longer eggs in the nest. Something ate them. This was sad, but it is part of what happens in nature. It looks like they are building a nest somewhere near our back yard now. Hopefully they are able to raise these ones.
This is part of a shell. I wanted to take a picture so that we can see the patches a little closer. They look like someone took a paintbrush and splotched paint all over it.
We will be watching to see where their new nest is, and hopefully nothing will touch it.
