We have an abundance of babies now during the December month.
First, we had the twin Malachite sunbird babies that I posted, and here now we have Cape Sparrow triplets.
They built that nest high up on the pipes running down on the wall of an old double story house.
The Cape sparrow (Passer melanurus), or mossie, is a bird of the sparrow family Passeridae found in southern Africa. A medium-sized sparrow at 14–16 centimetres (5.5–6.3 in), it has distinctive plumage, including large pale head stripes in both sexes. Its plumage is mostly grey, brown, and chestnut, and the male has some bold black and white markings on its head and neck. The species inhabits semi-arid savannah, cultivated areas, and towns, and ranges from the central coast of Angola to eastern South Africa and Eswatini. Three subspecies are distinguished in different parts of its range.
The mom had food in her crop, and here she was regurgitating it to feed the baby.
Happy days, as you can see how hungry the babies are. There were three of them, but I'm sure that once the mom leaves, they pull back into the nest, and change positions so that all three can be fed in rotation.
There's the dad, singing to the world a song about his pride and virility.
The Cape sparrow was featured on the lowest-denomination South African coin, from the farthing (¼-cent) in 1923 to the cent that ceased to be minted in 2002, with designs based on an original by George Kruger Gray. This was said to be because women interned at a concentration camp in Bethulie during the Boer War adopted a biblical quotation (from Matthew 10) as their motto: "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father." It has also been featured on stamps from Lesotho and the Central African Republic.
That poor mom kept on flying back and forth to feed the three youngsters.
Wally, she shouted, will you get off your high perch and come and help me to feed.
Look where Wally was sitting, and he whispered to his wife that he was keeping a guard on the nest. I think Wally is a real dodger, as that poor mother flew around countless times to get food for the babies.
You will find some interesting reading in the Source that I mentioned above, about these Olde World birds. There are so many here, that people don't take notice of them anymore, except the wine farmers of course. Once they had eaten all of the grass weeds below the grape lines, then they will start to eat the grapes. Their local nickname is Mossie, and there are different species of them here in South Africa.
Such is a sparrow's life.
I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the story.
Photos by Zac Smith. All-Rights-Reserved.
Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.
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Their adorable babies look very happy when mommy comes back and brings food.
Just the same as little children when they are hungry, and their mothers bring them food. !LOL
You did a great job with the pictures! It captured the essence of the birds.
Is it just me or are the kids a little too grown to be feeding from mama's mouth?😅 They appear to be the same size as the mother, or maybe it's cos of the angle the photos were taken in.
And the father, it's safe to say that dads all have one behaviour in common, among different species.😄
Nice work!
Thank you for the compliment, and the kids are about ready to leave the nest. They are smaller than the mother, but at this stage it will not be long before they are the same size as the mother. When they leave the nest, the parents continue to feed them for a few days, until they have learned how to hunt and to feed themselves.
Yep! I think that at the early beginning of time, the dads learned how to avoid work, from the lessons of the male birds. !LOL
The bird looks so beautiful.
Thank you and I do agree with you. !LOL
I enjoyed the pictures. It made me think about the compassion between a mother Cape Sparrow and her babies. I hope that people will have this compassion that we observe among animals. Sometimes we have much to learn about parenthood from animals around us. Thank you for the amazing photos !BBH !LOLZ !PIZZA
Thank you, and nature is indeed a teacher to mankind, but sadly so many of us refuse to learn the lessons. The dad sparrow will die in an effort to defend his babies, but nowadays, human dads dump their families to go and enjoy themselves somewhere else. That's just the way of life.
Blessings. !PIZZA !LOL !LUV
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Sad reality. Sometimes animals are more humane than humans !BBH !LOLZ !PIZZA
I totally agree with you. !LOL !PIZZA !LUV
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@papilloncharity! @day1001 likes your content! so I just sent 1 BBH to your account on behalf of @day1001. (7/20)
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And Wally was doing a nice fine job of keeping guard.
The babies were hungry yes but they weren't eaten!!
I enjoyed the pictures and the story, the mom is trying so hard to feed her babies, mothers love is unconditional
Thank you and yes, nature has been teaching mothers love since the start of time. !LOL
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They're adorable. I hope they get enough food.
Thank you, and yes, there are much food here. !LOL
!PIZZA
!PIZZA
Feliz año 2025, muchos éxitos y que viva hive ..
And a blessed New Year, also to you and yours. !LOL