I have often found Baltimore Orioles (Icterus galbula) nesting in sycamore trees along riverbanks, but never thought much about it until I encountered the scene depicted in this painting. It was the first day of summer, and all of the oriole fledglings had just tumbled out of the nest except one. It was, inexplicably, stuck in the side of the nest, a bizarre predicament made worse by the fact that the bird, now out of reach of its parents, could no longer be fed. By day's end, the hapless chick was hanging limp, forty feet above ground, either dead or exhausted from the ordeal.
The question that begged an answer was, What went wrong here? I found a simple explanation in one of my birding books: Orioles sometimes leave small openings in the sides of their nests. Why? The text didn't say. Perhaps a small side vent makes for a convenient perch from which to care for newly hatched young-- as well as, evidently, a potential trap for a rambunctious fledgling.
Returning the next morning, I was astonished to find the bird on the ground--alive and well and being fed by its parents. When the adults flew off, the chick simply vanished from sight, perfectly camouflaged by the detritus of twigs, pebbles, and dead sycamore leaves on the ground. Even its tufts of natal down had their counterpart in the downy seeds dispersed by the cottonwood trees nearby. In this worst-case scenario of a fledgling not quite ready for flight, I saw once again the adaptive genius of nature at work. |
