Only ten days after Momma Cardinal started sitting on her eggs, these guys appeared:
Naked and blind, they are completely helpless and guarded every minute by a very protective dad. (Some research revealed that the daddy bird is the one who finds bugs to bring the little guys, while the momma goes off to build another nest for the next batch of little ones.) Since the nest is right outside our front door, our ears are getting extremely attuned to the sound of an angry cardinal parent. Almost every time we take a moment to peek inside at these little babes, we are immediately chased down by the screeching, flapping red-feathered fella. In fact, right after I took the above photo (which took several tries--I was so nervous!) the male cardinal swooped down to stand his ground as their guardian.
It's getting a little "Alfred Hitchcock"
