How to Identify Wild Bird Eggs

Video transcription

Hello, my name is Bo Brown and I'm here to talk about identifying bird's eggs. There are no really hard and fast rules about identifying birds eggs, it's best to get a field guide, Peterson makes a very good field guide called "Field Guide to Birds and their Nests." In general, if it's blue and unmarked, it will be a Thrush family or Bluebirds. Sparrow eggs are generally kind of small and marked, spotted usually. Like I said, there's no hard and fast rules, and it's a very long and difficult study. The study of birds eggs is called Oology. Which brings us to the subject of being around the bird's nests. Any activity around the nest during incubation period can cause abandonment of the nest and should be avoided unless, unless needed to be. Nest boxes are a little better, where you can get in and look at the nest, but it's still better to wait until after the birds are hatched and there's a lot less likelihood of the bird, the adult birds abandoning the nest. Another thing that comes up occasionally around bird nests is you'll find nestlings on the ground, that have, appear to have fallen out of the nest, or have escaped the nest, or one thing or another. It's best to just leave them alone, or put them in a safe area, the parents will come back to them, you don't have to worry about your smell being on them, birds don't have a sense of smell. But just put them in an area where the cats or pets can't get to them and the parents will come back to feed them until they are able to fly. That's just a natural part of their biology, they leave the nest a few days before they're actually ready to fly.