Up Periscope! Not being seen helps avoid predation.

Canadian geese hiding in long grass help them protect their nest.

In order to successfully raise offspring, they have to be protected during all stages of their development.  From egg to hatchling to fledgling to flying, they are at risk of predation.  There are other dangers too, but the largest comes from animals that would fill their stomachs with defenceless creatures under the care of doting adults.

We walked through Vernon's downtown park along the improved pathway that allows pedestrians and cyclists to get from there to the Okanagan Rail Trail by Kalamalka Lake.  The town recently improved the meandering stream with rock, grass, and deadwood.  The gravel banks were a perfect place for killdeer to nest and raise their young.  I must have seen 12 or more breeding pairs, their nests cleverly hidden in the low berms.  It also happened to be a place the crows had discovered as they swarmed the killdeer in the attempt to drive them off their nests and to plunder the contents.

The main defence of the killdeer is that their nests and eggs blend seamlessly into the surrounding ground cover.  Canadian geese were there too, goslings in tow, but the crows knew enough not to bother them.  And then there were the cavity breeders, mostly starlings, although the odd chickadee or flicker could be seen, whose nests and young were protected by the firm confines of the wooden trunks they were confined in.

Even then, I found several dead chicks near where we were camping, dispatched by the local cat population.  They climb trees, reach into the nest with sharp claws, and drag the helpless chicks out to their destruction.  Not for food, just because that's what a cat does.  

Of all the creatures that kill birds, the worst by far is the cat.  In the US alone, cats are responsible for more bird deaths than any other source, by a wide margin.  I photographed one of the chicks I found; you can see it below.

Baby bird dragged from its nest by a cat and left to die.

Clearly, the young are at risk from a wide range of predation, but the worst culprit of all is the domestic cat.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com