Artist Notes
How is this possible, it is almost the end of February and it was freezing last night. But yes, the sparrows have spring on their mind! This male sparrow is still partially in his winter coat, his throat will turn black in the summer. But they are on a tight schedule: it is time to start building a nest!
I watched as he tried to stuff a 12 inch long blade of grass through the opening. Oddly enough that did not work.
The girl of his dreams is busily picking out her own selection of grasses and twigs. I watch as she rearranges some nesting material in her beak over and over again, for almost ten minutes. She finally takes the material to a branch near the new nest and then after fidgeting with it some more casually drops everything to the ground. Her fiancée picks it up from the ground and brings it to the nest.
When she discovers a feather she immediately drops her other nesting materials.
Some people are just too picky…
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