Update on the Baron

Tuesday (day 4):

You can see he's still covered in pin feathers, click the pics for a video, he's pretty chill.
Found Kingbirds in spanish are called "Madrugador avispero" - the "Tyrant Wasp's Nest" (wasps nest is a colloquial term for a big mess) and in french "Tyran de l'Ouest" or "Tyrant of the West." - a suitable name for the Baron!



Wednesday (day 5):

He's begun to walk around his cage. After being fed he has a happy I've been fed dance where he'll bob his head and walk in circles fluttering. Hopefully I'll catch it on video soon, it's pretty frickin cute. You can see his feathers are coming in better each day and he is getting BIG off the formula and worms!! He also has been perching on his water dish. Still can't eat worms by himself or drink by himself. You can see his feathers are still underdeveloped and there are gaps in his wings.


Thursday (day 6):

We put a perch in his cage, and he LOVES it. He has also taken to enjoying fingers. We're trying to be as impersonal as possible with him, but he is in love with Brian's fingers (does he realize people have faces?) - the perch also makes it so much easier to change out his poopy floor. I can't believe the guy poops SOOO much. Look closely at his wings, you can see the feathers still show the bare spine halfway down. Other than that, he's getting close to fledging.

There is a nest of sparrows on the porch/balcony above ours, the babies peep all day long and Baron kips back. He chats with anyone who will kip with him. Kip by the way is, no kidding, the technically term for the way Kingbirds talk. There are actually a lot of terms ornithologists have coined for different bird calls! We learned this from this website, where you can also listen to a recording of a Kingbird song.

Click the pictures for a video!

Update on the baby bird.

My wildlife specialist friend says he is most likely a Western Kingbird instead of a couches, since westerns are more common up here.

We've named him Baron Von Ünderbite since he's got a wonky looking beak. We also call his nest Ünderland. Here is the Baron being adorable:


Here he is savagely consuming a mealworm. We've also been feeding him baby bird formula, but it's grain based and Kingbirds eat bugs and fruit. Hopefully we can get him on a mostly insect diet soon, but at least he seems to like the formula.


And here he is in jail! Oh no... we got him a new Ünderland, an actual bird cage. He'll be safer in here even if it isnt as cute a place to keep him. We keep him outside on our porch with a sheet up to screen him from the evening sun. His mom's tree is right there, so you can hear them talking all day long. She just can't seem to find him or feed him. They're fiercely territorial so it may be that he is technically out of her territory now. Who knows, but we're the feeders now. We're hoping getting to talk to other Kingbirds all day will make it easier to release him when he fledges, maybe his mom will teach him to hunt.


And here is my drawing of him. :P

Here is a photo of the baby bird. He jumped out of his nest again, so I put up a new one for him. Damnit, stay in this one!!

Made a fake nest & put a baby birdy back in the tree, hope it works out for him, mom bird is still hanging around. We think it was a Couch's Kingbird http://ow.ly/204Dj