This flicker chick kept moving further out of the nest hole as the parents provided encouraging calls from a nearby tree. A few seconds after I took this shot, this flicker chick flew out of the nest hole off into the woods.
After the first flicker chick left the nest, the second chick moved to the opening. Despite encouraging calls from the parents nearby, it did not leave the nest until the next day.
5 days after the first 5 phoebes left the first nest, the phoebe pair started building a new nest on the other side of the garage. This one is right on top of the door frame. It is the tallest phoebe nest I have ever seen. I put a protective cover over the door opener button so the nest does not get destroyed.
The adults would zoom over the nestbox chirping as they were gathering bugs to feed the chicks. When the chick in the opening would hear them chirp, its mouth would open wide in anticipation.
The adults were visiting the nest with food about every 5 minutes. So that the chick at the opening did not get all the food, the adults would enter the box and feed the other chicks inside.
I hadn't been back to the flicker nest for a few days, so I was hoping there would be more activity from the chicks inside. What a pleasure it was to see two little heads within view inside the nest hole.
Dad flicker was wary of approaching the nest with me in the vicinity, but he braved it - much to the appreciation of the hungry flicker chicks. Mom was watching from an adjacent tree.
While observing the flicker nest hole, I noticed a house wren was going back and forth to a tree nearby. It turns out there is a wren nest just to the left of the flicker nest. I'll be keeping an eye on both for baby photos.
I finally spent some time at the flicker nest tree and managed to get the female peeking out of the hole. I'm hoping to get some like this of chicks peeking out in a few weeks.
