These nests were built in our large "Duchesse de Brabant" rosebush this past summer. I knew of one nest, since when I was out working in the garden one day, the alarmed parents worked their "distraction" techniques on me, hopping a few feet away from the rose bush, chirping loudly, hopping away a few feet more, then chirping again. Later I could see the nest among the canes near the top of the rosebush, which is about six feet high. I rarely saw any other activity near the nest, though.
A few weeks ago when we were pruning back the plumbago that had thoroughly infiltrated the rosebush, not one but
two nests were knocked out. There was no evidence of eggshells anywhere, and the nests were both full of rose and plumbago litter, so I don't know if either was used at all, or if the clutch had grown up and left the nest already, or even if one of the nests was last year's.
The nests are about 6" in diameter and about 3" deep (16cm x 8cm), and rather scruffy-looking, though in the builders' defense, pine needles are probably just a little too stiff for tidy construction. The nests are certainly sturdy, as they survived getting thrashed around and knocked out of the rosebush and have been sitting exposed on the deck for a few weeks now.
Maybe a song sparrow or house finch, by the looks of the nests? Selecting the appropriate criteria at
NestWatch retrieves only lesser goldfinch and northern mockingbird, and I'm pretty sure I have never seen goldfinches here, whereas the
mockingbird could be the pair I saw, and we certainly have these night-singers in abundance.
These images are all from
Wikimedia Commons -- credits are "By DickDaniels (http://carolinabirds.org/) - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18062292", "By cuatrok77 - NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRDUploaded by Amada44, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25141189", and "By Calibas - Own work, GFDL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3076875".
