“God gives every bird his worm, but He does not throw it into the nest.”

We’re seeing lots of fledgling birds around our place lately. Spring is the season and these little guys are really starting to leave the nest. I often marvel at all they have to learn until they’re independently flying and eating on their own.

One tiny, scruffy little bird was on the ground, unsure of how to get back up into the tree, but his parents were close by, guarding him as good parents do. I watched our bluebird house as a little head peeked out. Slowly but surely, he finally flew a short distance with uncertain wings, and landed on the first available surface: our kidney-bean perennial bed with stoke’s aster flower bud. He repeatedly flew back that short distance to the house, and back again to the bed many times. Practice makes perfect.

It amazes me how the birds learn to fly and find food sources. We often see parent birds feeding their young, while the young flutter little wings and open their mouths for food. The babies are often as big as the more mature birds, but you’ll see little signs of their immature status.

One young finch had fuzzy little bits that he had yet to lose. He looked like he had an elder statesman’s furrowed eyebrows. Another tufted titmouse had wispy beginnings of wings on his back, all a-flutter. When they are young, they don’t know to be frightened so it’s easier to try to snap a photo—they’ll sit still and pose for you.

“I’m youth, I’m joy, I’m a little bird that has broken out of the egg.”
(-Sir James M Barrie)