Month: June 2024

Breeding and Nesting

Great Crested Flycatcher: Four to eight white to buff eggs marked with brown, olive, and lavender are laid in a nest filled and lined with grass, weeds, bark strips, rootlets, feathers, fur, snake skin, onion skin, and cellophane. Nest is usually built in a cavity, abandoned hole of another bird, or bird box.

Foraging and Feeding

Great Crested Flycatcher: Eats variety of large insects, including beetles, crickets, katydids, caterpillars, moths, and butterflies; also eats fruits and berries; forages by flying from a perch to snatch insects from foliage, mid-air, or on the ground.

Beautiful bird that northern cardinal. Sitting in the birch tree awaiting a chance at the feeder. Red and green almost like Christmas despite the summer weather. This guy has had some damage to his beak but otherwise pretty handsome. Despite the distance of 20 yards, an 800 mm lens can provide some nice detail.

The pair have returned this year to again use the nesting box we set up intended for a Wood duck couple.  They apparently like the extra room!  Per iBird Pro, although both parents will inspect potential sites, building of the nest is done almost entirely by the female, while the male closely guards its mate.  Cavities that are large enough in size and opening are the preferred nesting sites, whether naturally occurring or excavated by other species as well as use nesting boxes and other man-made structures.