The finch that came to stay...

[eminenz2]

A purple finch and his wife have built a nest behind one of the outside lights on the front of our house. They are 'nestled' between a downspout and the light itself.

We don't have a locking back door to our house, just a sliding glass door, so going out the "back door" won't work for us.

Being the raging tree-hugger that I am, I have convinced DH to please leave the outside lights off at night so the birds can sleep. However, we have to walk past the nest every day to get to our cars to go to work. They both fly off every time, even though I try to give them a wide berth.

Are we hurting them? Will the eggs hatch? He sits right next to her on the bend in the downspout, or on the light itself. Will using the light disturb them or heat up the eggs?

I've looked up "purple finches" on the web and it says they usually nest in conifers. What were they thinking?

Thanks in advance!

Susan L.G.

 

[allwildgirl]

I bet they'll be okay. I had a Robin build a nest in the hanging basket right at the top of my porch stairs once and all was fine. The babies hatched right on schedule and flew off when they were supposed to. Be thankful it's not a Blue Jay. They'd attack you every time you walked past

 

[eminenz2]

When we lived in a town house, we had a robin build a nest on one of the supports for our second floor deck. We could see her and the babies through the slats of the deck itself.

It was really kind of cool because we watched the babies grow up and all fly away!

However, when I would go out the 1st floor back door to water the plants I had down there she would freak out and fly at me like she was a some type of psycho-killer!

Thanks for the reassurance!

Susan L.G.