I'm following a breeding House Martin pair from the beginning of June. They built their nest in the window opening of my neighbor, at the 4th (the last) floor. I tried several times to take some photos but they are just flying in circles and are afraid to come to the nest when they see me in the window.
I decided not to stress them too much but now that the chick are so big that they could fly away any moment, I decided to insist with the photos. Besides my big hart, I admit that I had another reason to delay these photos: I usually get so involved when taking pictures that I forget to watch my steps and often step in unpleasant things. This time it was a 15 m high step but the photo session ended without acrobatics.
Here are the photos taken with a trembling hand:
"There are three of us, but I'm the boss, at your left."
Their black head and upperparts are hard to distinguish in the pictures because of the shadow on the wall but their pure white underparts are quite well visible.
"I'm not ugly, I'm hungry and you scared my food away with your stupid camera."
Here is the entire gang calling loud for their mom.
O.K., I'll try from inside the room. I'm afraid of heights anyway.
As soon as I left the window, one of the adults landed immediately at the nest.
Though the picture taken from indoors is not clear, you can see a wide open baby bird beak at the right of the adult bird.
Another unsuccessful shot taken during nest building, in June. It was almost dark outside.
I admired their art of nest building, from several layers of mud, reinforced with grasses, hair and various soft materials.
House Sparrows often try to take over the nest during construction, sometimes with success.
Once the nest is complete, the entrance at the top of the nest is so small that the sparrows cannot take over.
In turn, House Martins would wall-up House Sparrows by closing the entrance of the mud nest with the intruder inside, an old legend says.
Have a look at the colorful greenfinch, in breeding season.
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I decided not to stress them too much but now that the chick are so big that they could fly away any moment, I decided to insist with the photos. Besides my big hart, I admit that I had another reason to delay these photos: I usually get so involved when taking pictures that I forget to watch my steps and often step in unpleasant things. This time it was a 15 m high step but the photo session ended without acrobatics.
Here are the photos taken with a trembling hand:
"There are three of us, but I'm the boss, at your left."
Their black head and upperparts are hard to distinguish in the pictures because of the shadow on the wall but their pure white underparts are quite well visible.
"I'm not ugly, I'm hungry and you scared my food away with your stupid camera."
Here is the entire gang calling loud for their mom.
O.K., I'll try from inside the room. I'm afraid of heights anyway.
As soon as I left the window, one of the adults landed immediately at the nest.
Though the picture taken from indoors is not clear, you can see a wide open baby bird beak at the right of the adult bird.
Another unsuccessful shot taken during nest building, in June. It was almost dark outside.
I admired their art of nest building, from several layers of mud, reinforced with grasses, hair and various soft materials.
House Sparrows often try to take over the nest during construction, sometimes with success.
Once the nest is complete, the entrance at the top of the nest is so small that the sparrows cannot take over.
In turn, House Martins would wall-up House Sparrows by closing the entrance of the mud nest with the intruder inside, an old legend says.
Have a look at the colorful greenfinch, in breeding season.
