Fledging in Progress

by Donna Lewis

These are my ladies in waiting.

For those of you who don’t know what “fledging” means, its when the baby bird takes its first flight.

In purple martins this happens at or after it is 28 days old.  So it is good to know when the very first eggs are laid so you know when this will happen.

If you lower a house down to clean it or look at the nests, young who are close to this age can become scared and jump out. Not a good thing! I have had this happen to me, a long time ago before I was experienced with these birds.

This resulted in a frantic chase by me to catch them all, put them in a container, then replace them in the nest quickly. After that I had to close up the entrance hole with a bandana. Then I tied a long string to the cloth, and raised the house back up. After several minutes, I slowly pulled the bandana out. Luckily the babies stayed in their house.

Right now you can see the mothers and babies who are flying sit on the house and talk to the babies still inside the gourds. They try to urge them to come out and join the rest. They will circle all day and chatter until every young  martin has made it up to the skies.

It’s a wonderful and magnificent sound!  You won’t forget it.