I don’t know what it is about moving to the country that turns people into nature lovers, but it most definitely happens. When my wife’s parent retired to their farm, the grand kids started teasing them because they had more pictures of their “critters” than they did of any of them. Well, the same thing is now happening to us. We recently “hatched” three baby cardinals on our back porch. The whole process was so exciting to watch that we took about a million pictures to document it. Because of these baby cardinals our kids have started to tease us just like they teased their grandparents 15 years ago.
"Our" three cardinal eggs
The cardinal experience started when my wife and I noticed something making a nest in potted plant on the back porch. We enjoyed watching the progress but we had no idea what was building it. It was truly amazing to watch a few pieces of dry grass begin to twist together and form the most perfect little nest you ever saw.
Our babies right after hatching
After about three weeks of watching the nest take shape, we came home one afternoon and found the cutest little brown speckled egg in the nest. Once that first egg arrived we began to pay close attention to the back porch. After the second egg appeared in the nest we finally saw a lovely female cardinal sitting on the nest. The next morning we went out and found the third an final egg.
Hungry babies!
Once we certain that we had cardinals, we decided to find out how the rest of this little drama would progress. So, we went to Google and discovered some very interesting cardinal facts. Cardinals typically lay 3 eggs but they can lay anywhere from one to five. The female does all of the incubation and she doesn’t start to sit until she has finished laying. The eggs will hatch in 11 to 13 days after she starts sitting. Once hatched, both the male and female will feed the young. The male gets the extra benefit of defending the territory and carrying off the little poops sacks that the young expel. The baby cardinals are fast growing and they fledge, or leave the nest, 9 to 11 days after hatching.
Our babies are ready to leave the nest
All of these facts were proven out by our three baby birds. They hatched 11 days after the female starting sitting. The first brave baby left the nest on day 9 and the other two were gone when we came home on day 10. It was so exciting to watch this avian miracle of life unfold right before us. Watching these birds go from egg to first flight in 20 days was truly amazing to me me. I guess this is why people that move to the country become nature lovers. In the country you have the opportunity to get close to nature. And, the closer you get, the more and more amazing it is to watch.
Since our kids are tired of seeing the pictures, I hope you don’t mind us sharing these with you. Enjoy!
I live in Tulsa and we have birds in our garage!! They made the nest in a basket behind my granddaughters’ bike helmet. They think they own the garage and fuss at us when we come close or close the garage!! We have seen the adult but have yet to identify it–small, curved beak–brown head with a white stripe around the eye-rusty breast. I had the “bird” book out today trying to find it! So you don’t have to live in the country—-It can happen in a neighborhood. We haven’t gotten any good pictures–They are yelling at us or flying at us when we are near enough to photograph. I’m ready for them to move on!! I keep telling them-It’s MY garage!
Notice that we didn’t have any pictures of the parents! They did not like us poking around their nest either!
Dear Whites: Thanks for sharing the cardinal pictures. I have a pair of them who have come to my back yard feeders since last year, but I have never seen their nest. My trees are low and full -youpon, fig, bay and redbud. I am not very agile in my old age but this inspires me to use my opera glasses to watch them more closely now that my old tom cat is dead. Nothing excites a former biology teacher like nature up close!
So glad you like them! My wife has been teaching for 27 years. In my opinion there are no better people in the world than school teachers! So glad you are enjoying my blog!
We’ve had cardinal nests the past two years in a ficus tree on our patio. I performed a hatchet job on the ficus last fall and apparently, when the cardinals were real estate shopping, they didn’t care for the old neighborhood. They briefly checked out the schefflera “next door” (next pot) but after just a little effort at building a nest there decided it wasn’t quite sturdy enough (good call!). In the past when we’ve had a nest to watch I’ve closed the blinds and gotten a kitchen stool and binoculars out to watch the activity. I missed all that this Spring! Thanks for the post. I really enjoy your blog.
Thanks for the great story and so glad you are enjoying the blog!
I have a question; I have a cardinal nest right by my kitchen window in a metal lantern. The nest has 4 eggs in it and the female cardinal layed the eggs around the 10th of April and she is still sitting on the nest and none of the eggs have hatched. Will they hatch anymore after this long?
I am not a bird expert by any means. I did ask a friend of mine that is more familiar with this kind of thing. He said there is a 50/50 chance you may get some little birds. He said that sometimes she does not start incubating as soon as the eggs are laid. Give it a few more days but you are quickly running out of time for the eggs to be viable.
Well I will keep my fingers crossed for mama cardinal I do feel sorry for her as she has logged a lot of hours on that nest.
I also had a nest by my vegetable garden. The five babies were pretty crowded in the small nest, and when I checked on them yesterday, the nest had fallen a bit, and all the birds were gone. I am hoping it was time for them to leave the nest, and not that a predator killed the sweet things.
I can’t imagine 5 in a nest. Our three were so crowed once they started to grow. When ours left we had the same worry about the predators. However, we now see two young females and young male quite often, so we are pretty sure they really did leave that soon.
Wow, thanks for posting this. I just found a nest while trimming some bushes in the front of my home the other day. First, one egg, then two, three, four and FIVE! Just like you said, I have noticed after the fifth egg that mom is doing her best job sitting on those eggs. She hates when I go and take my peek everyday. We had a robin’s nest by our front door a few years ago. I never removed it, hoping we would get someone else to move in and use the birthing center. I am excited to see these baby cardinals.
That is so exciting. Once they hatch, watch them very closely as they will be gone in a flash! Best of luck and thanks for reading.
We were amazed and delighted this spring to have a cardinal born in our back yard, decide to pick a mate and return. His parents returned to the backyard, so the little fellow an dhis misses set up house keeping in our redbud tree in the front. This little tree is young only 5-6 years old. But we discovered while trimming that there was a nest! We would watch carefully for the next few days, and viola! we had 4 eggs! We started noticing dad coming and going a lot and the misses too, so my husband looked and found that the eggs were hatched! Last Tuesday he looked and we had 3 fuzzy babies, not sure what happened to the third. But today he looked again and all were gone. I did not realize that birds can hatch and be out of the nest in just 9 or 10 days! Amazing. I hope we will see them in the neighborhood as the summer passes.
I agree, it is amazing to watch nature work. We still see “our babies” around the yard. We got two females and one male. I hope you get to enjoy your new family for many years to come. Thanks for the comment.
What a delight to find your photo’s I am so jeolous! For two years I have had cardinal nest’s in my rosebushes. Only they are so high & placed right up against the window. I can watch them is through my window. One had fallen out and the male allowed me to place it back in the nest. I was really greatful for that. I so badly tried to take photo’s. I have been able to watch them in my birdbath and was glad to find photo’s of the young birds-they change so quickly!
What tyoe if camera are you using?
Thank you again for sharing.
Isn’t it fun to watch the birds. I use a Canon EOS Rebel T3i. It is a great camera and takes really awesome pictures. The quality of my original photos is much better than what you see on the web as I have to “crunch” them before putting them up. If you have an DSLR camera can you get a $10 polarizing filter that will allow you to shoot through glass like it is not even there.
Hello, not sure if you are still reading your comments but I have 3 cardinal hatchlings in my front hedge. it is so exciting! I’m worried they will fall out or get pushed out as they are really growing but I hope for the best. Thank you for your update and pictures.
I do read my comments and I enjoy each of them. My wife and i worried about the same thing when ours were growing. They got so big so fast and the nest was really small. However, by the time we were certain they couldn’t fit anymore, they all flew away. Best of luck and feel free to drop me a comment anytime.
We are watching a female build a nest only a few feet from our front door in a potted ficus here in South Austin, and every time I go in and out, I worry about disturbing her, but so far, she is hanging in there. I hate to bring up this dismal subject, but does anybody know how to help hide the nest/baby cardinals from blue jays? Other than somehow deport all blue jays? We witnessed a horrible killing of a baby cardinal a few years back and the cardinal parents were unable to stop it. This is the first nest around the house since that ugly event.
Hope you get a good tip. I have actually never heard of Blue Jays attacking other baby birds. I knew they were mean, but that is horrible. I wish you the best of luck and hope someone has a good idea for you.