As the day they fledged approached, the young House Finches would jump up out of the interior of the planter and flap their wings furiously.
You have to admire their dedication to the young. They spend their entire waking hours serving the needs of their offspring.
Despite being only a month or so old, the chicks are almost indistinguishable from the adult female. If not for the pin feathers on their heads (bottom photo), you would be hard pressed to tell if you were looking at a chick or the female (top photo).
Here is a photo of the male regurgitating seeds to feed the chicks. By the time the chicks leave the nest, the entire edge of the nest is encrusted with dried fecal matter. Despite this also being true last season, the female almost immediately set about raising a second brood in the same nest. I think I would be doing her a favor to get rid of the nest and let her start over building a new one - or would that be interfering too much. I don't know...
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