The Sparrow Vs. The House Finch Debate

June 11, 2001 - It’s finally happened. After fourteen days of labor, fourteen days of sitting there, patiently nurturing and protecting, fourteen days of worrying and fretting, Lois has hatched four fuzzy chicks. Her husband (who has yet to be named) was by her side as much as he could be, but in his genus, it’s not acceptable for a male to let the female work while she’s expecting. So instead, he watched over his young wife when he could, and then he would steal away and gather food for him, and something to bring home, and return to the nest to make sure that his precious "love bird" was well nourished. And after fourteen days, it’s done. The chicks have hatched, the young couple is now proud parents, and Mike Erlindson saw it all on his XCam2 Bird Cam.

Mike told us "About two weeks ago I noticed two birds hanging out my apartment balcony. This was unusual because the cat usually scares them off." Then shortly after noticing the birds, Mike found a nest in a hanging planter just over the balcony. "I originally considered getting rid of it because I didn’t want my cat Zoe to take a flying leap into the great beyond," Mike said, "but when I looked in I saw one tiny, speckled egg." Mike couldn’t throw it out now. The contents were too precious. So he left it alone. Only to discover, after a couple of days, that there were three more eggs in the nest. Some young couple was preparing for a family.

Mike wanted to be in on this momentous occasion, but he didn’t want to disturb the young couple. After all, how do you tell them that you mean them no harm when you’re always hanging around? So Mike set up what he then called "The Sparrow Cam" using the XCam2, and XRay Vision. He set the camera above the nest looking directly down into the nest, and he set XRay Vision to update the picture every five minutes. "The camera is live from 8:00 am until Dusk" he said. So during those hours, anybody in the country can log on to Mike’s website at http://www.soulfx.com/sparrowcam and watch for themselves as this little family makes its way in the world. He also describes in detail how he set up his XCam2 with the help of a little Duct Tape (that stuff works for everything).

At first, Mike thought they were Sparrows, (which is why he called it the "Sparrow Cam") but was informed by one of his website readers, a Mr. Bill Thompson, that they were likely of the House Finch genus. And Mr. Thompson should know, he edits "Bird Watcher’s Digest." So that explains some of the discrepancies that Mike noticed about the nest. First of all, the nest is on the 5th floor of Mike’s apartment, whereas Sparrows usually nest very near to the ground. Another difference between the Sparrow and the Finch is that the Finch tends to sing a lot more. Mike’s cat has got to love that one. But Mike is keeping the Sparrow Cam name because, according to him, "it has a certain je ne sais quoi. But for the record, those birds are House Finches."

One of the children who visited the site suggested that they name the Mother "Lois" after a character from the television series "Malcolm in the Middle," so that’s exactly what Mike did. He named the mother Lois, and he’s named one of the chicks Maureen. Dad and the other three chicks are still waiting for their christening. Hopefully they won’t be too emotionally scarred at not having been named right away. In the meantime, mom and dad are doing well, they’re taking good care of the children, and XCam2 is allowing anybody who’s interested to look in on their progress. Isn’t that amazing, the way technology and nature can work and play together? Who says we ’Can’t all just get along?’

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