About 10 days ago, Eric discovered a bird’s nest in the cherry tree in front of the house, and a clutch of baby birds inside. We’ve been following their progress daily since then. They’re fieldfares (turdus pilaris, björktrast, hallrästas).

By the time we discovered the nest, the eggs had already hatched. There wasn’t much activity or movement around the nest until hatching, and nothing to make us notice the nest. It’s at the height of our 1st floor window, not very visible from the ground.

Once the babies had hatched, though, there was a lot of traffic, as the adults kept fetching worms for the little ones. Both mama bird and papa bird were working hard: sometimes one parent had barely left the nest before the other arrived (after a few reconnaissance stops at lower branches, to check that the coast was clear). We could often see the adults hopping around in our garden, pecking for worms.

The baby birds grew at an astonishing speed. Ten days ago they were naked, blind and puny. Yesterday the first one left the nest, and today the nest is empty. However the birds aren’t quite ready to leave their parents yet: they can hop around, but not fly yet, and the parents will keep feeding them for another few days.

According to the Internet, fieldfares in southern Sweden often lay a second batch of eggs in June/July. Stockholm is well below the middle so perhaps we’re southerly enough to see another clutch?

Naked and small, barely visible over the edge of the nest
Hungry!
Still hungry, but now with a few downy feathers
More feathers… still ugly
All feathered now
Getting very cramped in the nest
Just hopped out of the nest