About two years ago I was walking on the porch getting ready to go swimming when I saw a bird fly to the top of the back door. I was thinking that it might have a nest somewhere close by. I looked and saw the nest sitting on the frame of the door. I was excited to see the nest there and I ran in to tell everyone about it. Mama told me that it was a phoebe nest.
I started watching it. The Eastern Phoebe is a flycatcher. It eats grasshoppers, wasps, and any kind of insect. They have short and thin bills which helps them to catch their food. They like to live under bridges and on ledges. I think that is why our phoebe built its nest on the frame of our back door. I watched them land on the tree by the birdfeeder. The phoebe twitches its tail while it sits. I could hear its song. Its song is “fee-bee, fee-bee.” That is where it got its name.
A couple of weeks later, Samuel came running in to tell us that there was a snake trying to get the baby birds! We all raced out to get the snake away from the chicks. There we saw the snake getting closer to the nest. Mama grabbed a broom and tried to flick it off. The snake went into a hole in the house! The baby birds were saved, but it was frightening to think that the snake was in the wall! Soon the baby birds were grown and ready to fly away. One morning they were gone.
It is fall, so the phoebe has already gone south because it is almost winter. They don’t want to be here when it is cold, and the bugs are hibernating. Today, when I go out on the porch, I see the same nest as strong as ever over the back door. Unlike most other birds, phoebes reuse their nests. I don’t know how they did it, but the phoebes built it to last. I wonder if they’ll come back next year.
About sixteen days later Mr. and Mrs. Phoebe started bringing bugs for the three baby birds that had hatched in the nest. It was exciting to watch them feed their family. Phoebes can have up to two litters of hatchlings per year.
~Isaac
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