Thursday, June 11, 2009

Wild Kingdom part II -- a new set of birds of building a nest inside our porch




I believe these birds are part of the flycatcher family because they have forked tails, but I'm having trouble identifying them any narrower than that and I could use some help.

It's been fascinating during the past two weeks watching them build their nest.

Constructed with a mixture of mud and dried grass, it's entirely different from the other birds's nest that went up under the garage eaves last month.

Regular Brazosport News readers might recall that those baby birds hatched in that nest were growing up fine until one of the neighborhood cats lay waste to them. [See posts on May 23and May 17.]

(We've since identified the cat. It goes by "Whiskers.")

Back to the new set of birds. I give them credit for their engineering skills, not to mention their "work ethic" to use a cliché from the tiresome sports parlance of our times.

They started by building a thin ledge composed of moist red dirt. That base went up an inch or so, then they started bringing in black moist soil to continue building upward. Mixed into this, of course, is the re bar -- yellowing dead grasses.

They're at it all day from sunup to sundown.

As far as their appearance, you see from the pictures posted here they have a gray belly and chest and a rust-colored patch under their beaks that extends up between their eyes slightly.

Their backs are dark colored. I'd say black, but in just the right light, there's almost a sheen of dark blue in there.

So what are they? Do you know? Can you send this to somebody who knows a lot about birds and find out?

I've gone through many pages of Google images searching "flycatcher birds" and have yet to find a match.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're kidding, right? I know what they are, and I can give you the scientific name in about ten minutes, if you are serious.

I am ashamed of you Banjo, if you don't have a bird book, seeing as how you obviously are interested in that sort of thing.

jd

Banjo Jones said...

No, I don't have a damn bird book, JD. My bad. But if you can answer my question, I'll give you a free subscription to The Brazosport News. Thanks.

Jessica in Clute said...

Barn swallow

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/barn_swallow/lifehistory

They eat LOTS of mosquito's.

Banjo Jones said...

Thanks, Jessica from Clute.

Anonymous said...

There were about a hundred of those damn birds nesting all over my step-son's house in Sonora.

I hope they don't swarm your house like they did his. That is, this gang is like the white settlers moving in on indian territory...the first of many.

One nest may be okay.

jd

Banjo Jones said...

you're rainin' on my parade, JD.
and what are you doing up at 4:40 a.m.?

Jessica from Clute said...

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/main/6488393.html

Barn swallows vs. Cliff swallows