A small, tight flock of House Finches landed on the lowest branch of the largest pine tree. Flitting their wings and cheeping incessantly, four of them mobbed the brightly colored male they had been chasing. Two weeks earlier, four Say’s Phoebes first tested their flight feathers. Two weeks before that three still-flightless American Dippers plopped out of their hanging nest into the fast-moving stream below. 

Many birders anticipate the annual return of spring migration, but the pinnacle of the natural year is certainly the advent of the season’s baby birds.

Oregon abounds with habitat diversity, hence the state’s diversity of breeding birds. More than 250 bird species have been documented nesting inside Oregon’s borders. Birds like the  American Robin, Mallard and Mourning Dove breed in all corners of the state, and others such as the Blue Grosbeak, Upland Sandpiper, and Spruce Grouse raise their young in isolated and unique patches of habitat.

The nesting season often begins with the resident raptors in early March: Red-tailed Hawk, Great-horned Owl and Golden Eagle. American Dippers nest building begins while snow still lines the banks of Oregon’s coldest streams. The Say’s Phoebe is one of the earliest nesters among Oregon’s migrant songbirds, followed closely by the Tree Swallow and Mountain Bluebird. By early June most northbound migrants have left the state and the remaining 250-some species are actively engaged in nesting.

An early summer walk through one’s local forest or city park will reveal abundant evidence of the avian breeding season. Many birds work very hard to hide their nest sites, even going so far as to trick the most careful observer. A Steller’s Jay (similar to Pinion Jay in photo) ) carrying food into a dense pine tree surely approaches the nest. After waiting until the threat has moved on, the bird bolts out of the tree, still carrying the food, and darts out of sight to its well-hidden abode. Swallows do not practice the same clandestine antics. A back yard nest box will draw Tree or Violet-green Swallows who aggressively defend the surrounding airspace.

Courtship and territory defense continue well into the nesting cycle. Yellow Warblers and House Wrens are among the most garrulous songsters of the season; the Northern Goshawk and Forster’s Tern win the prize for the scariest dive-bombing techniques to chase off potential nest site invaders. The Greater Sage Grouse practices one of the gaudiest courtship displays as whole communities of roosters strut in patches of open desert to win the chance to breed with visiting hens. 

Even the most remote glacial cirques of the Oregon Cascades host breeding birds, like the Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch, who scours snow patches and alpine grasslands for food to deliver to its nestlings tucked into a precarious cliff-side dwelling. Oregon’s offshore islands invite a host of nesting seabirds. Leach’s Storm-petrel, Tufted Puffin (photo) and Cassin’s Auklet are among the most difficult birds to observe during breeding season. The Storm-petrel in particular only reveals its nesting location in the dark of night when it brings the ocean’s bounty to its babies in waiting.

Observing breeding behavior among the most common backyard birds will give any birder a new perspective on the daily visitors to their feeding station. The excitement of avian reproduction will spark a heightened level of interest in bird watching. Sure, spring migration is spectacular. But to enter the bird’s little world through the binoculars or spotting scope and watch tireless adults make hundreds of trips to the nest to feed their voracious nestlings unavoidably inspires a magical and lasting appreciation for the struggle to survive.  (Tiny Lewis's Woodpecker peeks out his apartment window.)

 (C) 2002 Stephen Shunk     http://www.paradisebirding.com   (Eagle and chick photo is a link to its source. Puffin supplied by Oregon Coast Aquarium.  The rest of the shots came from the author)