Day 9 — Frequent male visits, two unusual events at midday

The female is on the nest at 02:00 and the next clip isn’t until 08:37, when a red male perches on the adjacent book while she sits. Similar visits at 09:29, 10:26, 10:27, 11:42, and 11:43 — the male approaches, lingers on the shelf below or briefly on the nest rim, then leaves while she stays put. Pattern continues through the early afternoon.

Two notable midday moments. At 14:16:55, the male is in the cup for two frames (reddish plumage on head and chest), then is replaced by the female who settles in to incubate — a brief male-on-cup visit, then a normal male-to-female changeover. At 16:28:54, the male is in the cup with the female on the shelf below; the male shifts position, briefly exposing the eggs, before the female returns to incubate. Five pale-blue eggs are clearly visible in the empty-nest clips at 16:27, 16:29, and 16:45.

Afternoon and early evening run as expected: she’s on the nest most of the time, with short empty windows at 17:40, 17:51, 18:01, 18:22, 19:09, 19:24, and 19:48. The male is at the rim once more at 18:59.

A human walks through the sunroom at 19:54 and again at 19:55. The nest stays empty through 20:03; the female returns at 20:01, leaves again, then settles for good around 20:11. From there she’s continuously in the cup through the last clip at 22:15, all in IR.

Notable: male briefly in the nest cup at 14:16 before the female took over, and the male in the cup at 16:28 with the female on the shelf below. Earlier descriptions misidentified the red-plumaged male as a “female with reddish wash” at 14:16 and called the second bird at 16:28 “another male” — both corrected after visual inspection. Only male House Finches carry red plumage; sex calls keyed off the red wash should default to male.

Pipeline: No infrastructure changes this day.

Day’s metrics.

• Clips: 122
• Sunrise / sunset: 06:10 / 20:00 PT
• On-cup share: 74.8%
• Dad visits: 7
• Feeding clips: 14
• Max eggs visible: 5