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This Morning Outsideby Diane PorterMay 22, 2010 On a hot day like today, the killdeer parent doesn't sit down on the eggs to keep them warm. Instead, he or she stands over them and shades them from the sun.
The nest is a slight depression on the ground. Many nests are on gravel, like this one at the edge of a gravel road. This nest is typical in having four eggs, whose pointed ends fit together and keep all of the eggs from rolling away. Both parents look alike and take care of the eggs and the young, so I don't know whether this picture is the mother or the father killdeer.
Baby killdeer are almost unbearably cute. I'm hoping to see this clutch of eggs hatch and watch the fluffy infants run around on their stilt legs. On the same day that all the eggs hatch, the parents will lead the babies away to a safer area. The adults don't feed their young the way robins do, not even at first. But they show by example how to find edible little bugs and snails and other creepy crawly things of the earth. The babies catch on right away. Read Killdeer on the Drive (How to Help and How NOT to Help). —Diane Porter |
Killdeer eggs take longer to hatch than do robins and blue jays and other birds whose babies are born blind and helpless, because killdeer babies hatch with their eyes open and their running shoes on.