NORTH SALT LAKE -- The Pearson family didn't think much about putting up a wreath on the outside of their front door this spring as an Easter decoration, complete with a faux nest and eggs. But weeks later, they found their decoration had come to life.
The wreath on the front door of the North Salt Lake house is now home to a family of birds."It's the most unbelievable thing," Shellie Pearson said. "We open the door a little more gently now, and we don't slam it like we used to."
Pearson put up the wreath near the end of April. In the coming weeks, she was puzzled when every time she would open her front door a startled bird would quickly fly out of the wreath. She didn't think much of it until around Mother's Day when she decided to take a closer look.
It was then Pearson discovered the bird that kept darting out of the decoration was a mother trying to hatch five little blue eggs in a cup-shaped nest tucked in the back of the wreath.
"I thought, There's no way she'll ever be able to sit there long enough to hatch them . . . we keep disrupting this," Pearson said. "I don't know why they would choose such a busy spot."
But when the family went out of town for Memorial Day weekend and the door was left undisturbed for a few days, three of the eggs hatched.
Now hidden behind the wreath's decorative nest and eggs are three nestlings and two unhatched eggs. Pearson said the baby birds' parents built the nest mostly out of materials in the wreath, which is made of Spanish moss, eucalyptus and willow.
Though the Pearsons think the birds could be sparrows, Jennifer Richerson of Tracy Aviary says they may likely be house finches.
Richerson says she is not completely surprised that the birds found a home in the wreath. Finches tend to like living in cavities and crevices, and many birds find shelter in drains and chimneys, she said. But this is the first time she has heard of a family taking shelter in a front door.
"They build nests out of what they can find," she said. "Birds are very resourceful. . . . By putting up this basket, (Pearson) was providing a nice opportunity for them to build a nest."
Richerson says finches are born naked and helpless, and it takes them between 11 and 19 days to be able to jump out of the nest and experiment with their wings.
That means in the next week or two, the baby birds may have the strength to leave the nest, which is good timing for Pearson.
"I have a Fourth of July wreath I was going to put on the door," Pearson said.
Meanwhile, she says her family and friends will continue to enjoy the unusual visitors.
"It's really kind of amazing," she said. "Everybody loves it."
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