Whose Your Daddy?

If you have been following my posts about our birdies then you may have seen a red bird in one of the pictures. We noticed that he is always around and assumed he was bothering Car. I even saw something in his mouth one time so we would shoo him away whenever we saw him. That leads me to this posts title....

The other night while watching TV, Pat noticed that the birds on a Lowes commercial looked like the ones in our backyard. Duh?! The red bird is a male Cardinal, the Daddy! We didn't realize that they stay together and watch over the babies.

If you look closely you can see something in his mouth.

After doing my research I found out that the Mama incubates the eggs while the Daddy watches over and brings her food. After the babies hatch both, the mother and the father feed them. That would explain why he is aways around and always has something in his mouth. Today, during my daily birdie photo shoot, I saw Daddy go into the nest and feed the babies!

This is Daddy leaving the nest after the feeding.

He must have brought a feast for dinner because they look like very full babies.

On a sad note, after 9-11 days the birdies leave the nest, often they still haven't mastered flying. I hope when that day comes they all learn very quickly!

So the countdown begins...5 days (at the most). Boohoo!