June 25, 2017 - Eastern Phoebe Nest

This summer, at our home in northern Minnesota, an Eastern Phoebe decided to build a nest inside our boat lift. This is Dylan, one of our grandsons, standing on our dock. The nest was built inside the cover of the lift in the corner right behind Dylan’s head.

DylanHestwoodandboatliftDunningLakeItascaCounty20170619

This is the view of the inside of the boat lift as I was standing in the pontoon. The nest is back in the corner to the right of the battery box. Here is a quote from the book “Nests, Eggs, and Nestlings of North American Birds.” Eastern Phoebes usually build their nest “on a ledge, rafter, or raised site with some overhanging protection, in or on a building, under a bridge, or in any niche of this kind.” That’s a pretty good description of this nest site.

PhoebeEasternnestboatliftDunningLakeItascaCounty20170619

This photo was taken June 3 after two of the eggs had hatched. We’ll call this Day 1. We can assume the other three hatched the same day because phoebes don’t start sitting on the eggs (incubating them) until all the eggs are laid.

PhoebeEasternbabiesandeggsdayDunningLakeItascaCounty20170603Samsungphone

This is what the babies looked like on June 8, which was Day 6. I can see three beaks for sure. Another top of the head appears to be near the left edge of the nest. I’m guessing number 5 was tucked in there somewhere. I wasn’t about to disturb them to find out. There is still a lot of pink skin showing but wing feathers are just starting to emerge.

PhoebeEasternbabiesDayDunningLakeItascaCounty20170608

This photo was taken June 11, which was Day 9. We mostly stayed away from the nest so we didn’t disturb them. I would quickly snap a photo when we took the boat out. Now the babies are covered with down and the wing feathers are getting pretty long.

PhoebeEasternbabiesnestboatliftDayDunningLakeItascaCounty20170611

On June 19 (Day 17), they are looking fully feathered and almost like adult birds.

PhoebeEasternnestboatliftDayDunningLakeItascaCounty20170619

On June 20 (Day 18), they decided it was time to leave the nest. The book I mentioned above says they usually leave the nest between 15 and 17 days after hatching. So, these babies took an extra day beyond that.

PhoebeEasternnestboatliftDunningLakeItascaCounty20170620

Here’s one of the adults bringing a dragonfly to feed the babies. Both male and female phoebes look alike so we can’t tell which one this is. They work very hard getting enough food to keep 5 hungry babies satisfied!

PhoebeEasternwithdragonflyDunningLakeItascaCounty20170619