Papa Oriole took his children out to eat this morning. After their date night, Mr and Mrs B. Oriole decided to let the kids see the bright lights and get out of the nest.
Papa brought them to the same dessert place where you get grape jelly.
Amazingly the kids are as big as Papa now and are filling out their real oriole feathers with the black wings marked with white. But the orange is still invisible and they are a dull tan right now.
But Papa brought them to the grape jelly place and taught them how to bend down and eat it on their own—after giving each one of the four mouthfuls of jelly from his beak. They looked silly being so big with Papa feeding them. Their mouths were wide open as they waited for Papa Bird to feed them. They are big enough to fly but not big enough to refuse Papa’s feeding them.
I think they caught on and will probably be back on their own from now on.
Another bird mom brought a big baby to a feeder also. A female rose breasted grosbeak brought Junior up to the deck where Junior was almost bigger than Mom but Jr. opened his mouth wide for Mama to feed him safflower seeds.
The summer’s work is nearly done for the bird parents who tend to their offspring so diligently and carefully.
If only humans would do so well!!!!
