Chipping Sparrow Eggs Hatching

The female chipping sparrow builds her nest in three or four days. It’s usually made from rootlets and dried grasses, and lined with horse or other animal hair and fine plant fibers and is so unsubstantial that you can often see light through it. The 2 - 7 pale blue-to-white eggs hatch after about two weeks, and the young fledge in 9 to 12 days. As you can see in this photograph, the colorful, open gaping beaks of the nestlings make easy targets for food-bearing adults. (To see an adult chipping sparrow, go to http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/chipping_sparrow/id)