Day 3 — Frequent short reliefs; male visits the nest area at 10:17

Pre-dawn coverage starts with the female on the nest at 06:16 and 06:23, shifting briefly to expose the eggs. She’s off by 06:28, and the empty cup with all five eggs is visible across both cameras. She returns briefly at 06:29 and settles back to incubate at 06:31 before leaving again.

The mid-morning pattern is unsettled. The nest sits empty at 07:34 until she perches on the shelf nearby. From 08:33 to 08:39 she comes and goes in short bursts — arriving at 08:34, gone by 08:36, back at 08:37, gone again. She finally settles in for a longer stretch from 08:53 through about 08:59. Another gap follows from 09:15 to 09:16, with a brief return at 09:16.

At 10:15 a female briefly appears in the cup and leaves. Then at 10:17 a male House Finch arrives, perches on the books beside the nest, and departs without entering the cup. He’s seen again on the shelf at 10:17:41. This is the first male recorded near the nest in the current data.

The cup is empty through 10:35 and across 11:12–11:13. The female returns at 11:13:59, perching on the rim, and is settled in by 11:54. After a midday break around 12:58 she returns and incubates again. The afternoon repeats the pattern: incubating at 14:11, off at 14:12, back at 14:13. At 15:45 she perches near the nest without entering, and the cup stays empty through 15:46. A short incubation visit at 17:10. The last clip of the day shows her on the nest at 21:22 after an empty cup at 21:21.

Notable: first observed male visit to the nest area, around 10:17.

Pipeline: No infrastructure changes this day.

Day’s metrics.

• Clips: 64
• Sunrise / sunset: 06:17 / 19:55 PT
• On-cup share: 49.6%
• Dad visits: 3
• Feeding clips: 11
• Max eggs visible: 6