Very good news. Crossing my fingers.
We need to combine nests my female and your male. Together we might stand a chance
Live Stream of my Bird Box - Bluetits Nesting - Chicks Hatching Now
- Thread starter Nazbit
- Start date
Very good news. Crossing my fingers.
We need to combine nests my female and your male. Together we might stand a chance
Very good news. Crossing my fingers.
We need to combine nests my female and your male. Together we might stand a chance
Yeah would be good. Shame Bluetits aren't like Long-tailed-**** that rope in aunts and uncles to raise the chicks.
Single parent nests are not uncommon and the success is purely down to finding enough food. Rain is the great risk now as it washes caterpillars off the trees and makes it really hard to the birds to find food.
I've got a thunderstorm forecast for Thursday but warm and dry for the rest of the month. The garden is currently inundated with Starlings. The fledglings have increased the local flock to over 50 birds and they are not quiet! I put out 3 fat balls in a holder for them at 8am this morning and all 3 have been completely devoured.
Just tried with a couple of small meal worms but when she returned she took them back out.
Looks like we are probably about to loose one of them. He us sinking to the bottom of the nest, not opening his beak for food, not really putting up much of a fight.
The other three still look OK but I still don't think they are getting enough food. She is still taking 10 - 15 minutes to find each caterpillar and then resorting to peanut butter which she can't really get off her beak and in to their mouths because its too sticky.
The oldest is showing some signs of development since yesterday. He has more feathers and more coloring.
One of them keeps getting out and going for walks around the box before he either falls back in to the cup or she drags him in.
Soldato
One seems to have fallen out the nest and is in the bottom right corner of the box.
That one has been climbing out of the nest all day and doing circles before eventually falling back in.
It's got itself stuck in that corner now hasn't it.
Hope she can pull him back because when he's walked around the nest she's generally just ignored it and let it do it's thing.
It's got itself stuck in that corner now hasn't it.
Hope she can pull him back because when he's walked around the nest she's generally just ignored it and let it do it's thing.
Mission failed I think.
The only other thing I could have done was remove the lid to try to rescue it but due to the way the box is built it would have meant taking the box of the wall.
That would have most likely caused her to abandon the nest and would be unfair to her and the other two chicks.
For anyone who wasn't watching the stream the "over active" chick who has been crawling out of the nest and doing laps of the box all day (like some creepy insect see post 358) went on another adventure shortly after 5pm but got himself trapped down the edge of the nesting material in the bottom right hand corner of the box.
Mum didn't rescue him so he has now died.
Which means we are down to two chicks.
The only other thing I could have done was remove the lid to try to rescue it but due to the way the box is built it would have meant taking the box of the wall.
That would have most likely caused her to abandon the nest and would be unfair to her and the other two chicks.
For anyone who wasn't watching the stream the "over active" chick who has been crawling out of the nest and doing laps of the box all day (like some creepy insect see post 358) went on another adventure shortly after 5pm but got himself trapped down the edge of the nesting material in the bottom right hand corner of the box.
Mum didn't rescue him so he has now died.
Which means we are down to two chicks.
Soldato
Wonder why the mother ignores the chicks when they have fallen out of the nest.
Not sure. I actually wonder if it's hard to see it from her angle. It's down quote a narrow gap and of you look how deep the cup of the nest is it's probably a similar depth. His leg only just shows about the same height as the nesting material.
But yeah more generally he's been walking around the nest all day and she's been letting him which wasn't great really. I only saw her pull him back in once. The rest of the time even when she was sitting on the other chicks she left it to walk around.
Can't decide if the chick itself was brave or stupid to be walking around like that before it was able to open it's eyes.
I guess either way in nature terms those instincts have now been selected against by its death.
I wonder if she should have built the nest cup deeper?
I also think the unhatched eggs where a big part in him getting a leg up to climb out.
But yeah more generally he's been walking around the nest all day and she's been letting him which wasn't great really. I only saw her pull him back in once. The rest of the time even when she was sitting on the other chicks she left it to walk around.
Can't decide if the chick itself was brave or stupid to be walking around like that before it was able to open it's eyes.
I guess either way in nature terms those instincts have now been selected against by its death.
I wonder if she should have built the nest cup deeper?
I also think the unhatched eggs where a big part in him getting a leg up to climb out.
Associate
Sad to see that two have died! The smaller of the two that are left doesn't look good either, it seems to waste energy moving around while the mum is away then gets stomped on by the bigger chick on e she returns!
My two are still alive, male has been feeding them all day and considering the female contributed nothing yesterday that's two days he's been the sole provider. Still another 9-10 days to go though.
I've got some funny hedgehog videos I can share if anyone needs cheering up.