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Re: Early House Finch Fledgling



>Today, 03/26/01, I had a House Finch fledgling being feed seed by the adults
>on my deck.  I can't imagine when they built the nest.  Wow!
>
>Dennis Lankford
>Charlotte, NC

******

DENNIS . . .

This is a remarkable observation. Is it possible that adult males 
were courtship-feeding an adult female rather than a fledgling? 
Females often solicit males with wing-fluttering and other 
juvenile-like behaviors.

My earliest banding of a fledgling House Finch here at Hilton Pond 
Center for Piedmont Natural History near York SC was on 7 May 1992, 
but the typical early date is the third week of May. Your date of 26 
March would be almost two months ahead of that average.

Assuming a two-week incubation period and 14-18 days in the nestling 
stage, a female House Finch would need to be sitting on eggs the last 
week in February to have a flegling by 26 March. If this is 
happening, I guess we'll have to chalk it up as another example of 
the effects of global warming!


Happy Birding,

BILL

-- 

BILL HILTON JR., "The Piedmont Naturalist"
Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History
1432 DeVinney Road, York, South Carolina 29745 USA
hilton@hiltonpond.org, (803) 684-5852, eFax: (503) 218-0845

Please visit our web sites at http://www.hiltonpond.org and
http://www.rubythroat.org

"Never trust a person too lazy to get up for sunrise or too busy to
watch the sunset."					BHjr.