Last two chicks have fledged! 7:30am and 7:35am

This morning the last two chicks have fledged!

The video shows the last feeding of the chicks in the birdbox. Immediately after the parent left the box, the first chick decides that it is time to go and he flies to the exit. He lingers there for about a minute before really flying out (not visible). The second chick then follows five minutes later (I have cut out a few minutes in the middle of the video).

Last two chicks fledge, 19 May 2014 7:30am

Another piece of good news is that the chick that fledged yesterday is still alive and kicking! I was somewhat worried about it because I had not seen it since it fledged, but I saw him in a tree together with his father just minutes before his siblings fledged this morning.

Of course I'm very happy with the happy ending of this story, but having observed these birds so closely for the last few weeks I also feel a bit sad that it is all over now. I can't wait till next year! :)

Father feeding the chicks, 20 minutes before fledging

Reaction to alarm call

Look at the reaction of the chicks to an alarm call by the parents outside the birdbox (at 0:07 in the video). I think the alarm was set off by a Jay that landed about 10 meters from the birdbox.

Chicks go flat on the nest after alarmcall by parents, 19 May 2014 7:11am

That woodpecker again

The Great Spotted Woodpecker returns several times per day and peeks into the birdbox. There are still 2 chicks in the nest and that was enough for him to try to drill a hole in the box. Fortunately the box is made out of good quality wood but the damage is building up.

Woodpecker damage above and to the right of the entrance, 18 May 2014

Also this time the mother attacked the woodpecker ferociously while outside the box but of course there is not much she can really do. After a while she flew into the box and started threatening the woodpecker from inside.

Woodpecker attacks again, 18 May 2014 11:19am

The first chick has fledged! 7:48am

The oldest chick was always a bit ahead of his siblings. At 7:48am he looked outside a few times and then decided it was time to take the leap into the unknown. He landed on a bush just 2 meters from the birdbox and I have not seen it since.

The video shows the last 1.5 minutes of the chick in the birdbox. He jumps to the exit a few times and then back on the floor. In the last second of the video you can hear him finally fly out.

First chick fledges, 18 May 2014 7:48am

Chicks back in the nest

Yesterday the chicks were moving around in the birdbox the whole day. But it looks like their curiosity has been satisfied and that they have concluded that the nest is still a very comfortable place, because today they spend most of the day together in the nest again!

Chicks on the nest, 17 May 2014 6:04pm

But there is still the occasional wing-testing going on. And the wings are becoming more powerful.

Wing testing, 17 May 2014 6:18pm

All chicks moving around free now

All chicks are now moving around free in the birdbox. Unfortunately they now spend most of their time huddled together at the other side of the birdbox somewhat outside the view of the camera.

In the video below you first see feeding and after that one chick testing out his wings.

Chicks moving around free, 16 May 2014 6:09pm

As you can see there is still one unhatched egg in the nest, but there used to be two. No idea what happened to the second unhatched egg. Perhaps eaten by one of the birds?

Oldest chick is getting adventurous

One of the three chicks is older and already a bit more developed than the others. This evening I saw for the first time that it left the nest and walked around inside the birdbox. It didn't help him getting more food though... so he goes back to the nest where his mother is.

Outside the nest for the first time, 15 May 2014 6:56pm

Starting to look like real birds now

It's been 17 days since the first chick hatched and look at them now!

Feeding, 15 May 2014 8:01am

Chick testing his wings

Having feathered wings must be a whole new experience!

Chick stretching his wings, 14 May 2014 9:00am

UPDATE: Not only stretching but also flapping now

Chick flapping his wings, 14 May 2014 11:16am

Woodpecker returns, mother puts her own life at risk and loses some feathers

This morning the Great Spotted Woodpecker returned again and this time what happened outside the birdbox (as seen with binoculars, unfortunately not on video) was truly spectacular (and frightening).

The mother risked her own life by flying into the birdbox literally right under the nose of the woodpecker. I could clearly see that after that the woodpecker had some down/ feathers in his beak!

What happened inside the birdbox was captured on video:

Woodpecker returns, 14 May 2014 8:25am

0:00 Chicks are on the nest, one of them is preening.

0:06 Woodpecker lands at the entrance of the birdbox. At first, one baby thinks it is mum or dad and he rises and opens his beak begging for food.

0:08 Chick realises the danger and lies flat on the nest

0:55 Mother risks her own life by flying into the birdbox right under the nose of the woodpecker. With my binoculars I could clearly see some down/ feathers in the beak of the woodpecker. In the video you can see a damaged feather on the outside of the mother's left wing. This was almost certainly caused by the woodpecker (I checked video images from just 2 minutes earlier - no damage).

1:16 Father also enters the birdbox flying close past the woodpecker. This can only be heard, he is outside the view of the camera.

1:47 Father leaves the birdbox again (not visible, can only be heard).

2:00 Woodpecker has gone, but mother stays alert for a long time. Chicks keep lying flat on the nest.

3:03 Father brings food. The situation normalises.

Chicks are preening

A few days ago when the chicks opened their eyes for the first time, they also started preening. It almost looked like they became self-aware from the moment that they could see themselves. But perhaps it simply has to do with the development of their feathers.

Today I saw a lot of preening and even some wing flapping. The short clip below shows one chick preening and streching his wings. Amazing how fast they have developed! It really looks like a little blue tit now.

Preening, 13 may 2014 5:39pm

In case you are wondering where the other two chicks are: they are hidden underneath the nest material at the bottom of the screen.

Btw: the woodpecker returned several times today and looked into the box but unlike yesterday it didn't make any serious efforts to get into the nest. I'm not sure if he simply thinks drilling a hole is too much effort or that he wants to come back once the chicks are bigger!

It's that woodpecker again... Mother is very brave!

The Great Spotted Woodpecker that discovered the nest a few days ago visited again this afternoon. But this time he made some serious efforts to actually get into the box. He spent several minutes trying to enlarge the opening of the box or find another way to get in. He started drilling just above the metal  around the opening to the point that some splinters came off! He also stuck his head quite far into the opening, but of course the hole is way too small for him.

While this is happening, the chicks are silent and laying low on the bottom of the nest. I think this is their instinctive reaction to danger.

When the mother bird saw this happening from the outside, she flew into the box while the woodpecker was hanging on the outside of the box just centimeters away from the opening. Very brave indeed! When inside the box the mother started threatening the woodpecker.

At 0:50s in the video you can even see for a fraction of a second the bill of the woodpecker (on the right) when he sticks his head through the entrance as far as possible. This must be a scary moment for the blue tits...

Woodpecker visits again, mother flies in and threatens the woodpecker. 12 May 2014 1:58pm

The woodpecker left and things are back to normal but I think he will return.

Update: just and hour later the woodpecker returned and started drilling briefly.

Two chicks, one caterpillar

Father brings in a massive caterpillar and two of the chicks start eating it at opposite ends. Eventually one of the two wins and with some help from father he is able to swallow it whole. As usual, a big poop then comes out and father takes it out of the box.

Look at the wings of the chick at around 1:00 in the video. The wings are really developing now. And the chicks are slowly turning into real birds instead of little pink worms :)

Two chicks, one caterpillar. 11 May 2014 3:54pm

Eyes are open!

One of the three chicks now has his eyes open for the first time, as can be seen in the video below (the chick at the bottom, at 0:05s). It is also starting to develop tail feathers (see at 0:35s). Ow, and their poops are getting bigger too and their calls are getting louder every day.

Feeding a big spider to the chicks, 9 May 2014 5:01pm

They are getting plenty of food now and since there are only three chicks left to feed things are looking pretty good for them.

Only three chicks remaining, but doing well

Yesterday was a disastrous day. In the evening there were only three chicks left. Fortunately, all three survived today and they are getting plenty of food now since there are only three chicks to feed. As I write this at 6:54pm, they all look strong and healthy.

In the video below you can see they are alive and kicking and their wings are starting to develop.

Only three chicks left but doing well, 7 May 2014 5:09pm

One more chick died, mother brings nest material

Sadly, another chick has died. That's down from nine to only four chicks in just over 24 hours. And one of the remaining four looks very weak and I fear he is not going to survive either.

I think there is not enough food coming in. Where are the green caterpillars? I thought they were supposed to be the main food. But in the last few days it's been mainly spiders and some things that I don't recognise. It seems to me that in the first days they brought in more nutritious food. But I could be wrong.

I captured something strange on video. You can see three healthy chicks and a dead one in the nest. After the mother comes back to the nest after having been away for about ten minutes, she brings nest material instead of food and it looks like she tries to feed it to the chicks.

Strange behaviour, 6 May 2014 6:36pm

Perhaps I'm reading too much into this but it looks kind of desperate and confused.

Half of the chicks now dead

Things are not going well at all at this moment. Three more chicks have died over the past ~15 hours. Now there are only five left. As mentioned in a previous post, one chick disappeared yesterday. Early this morning there were still seven chicks alive.

The video below is a 33 sec compilation of three fragments within the period 8:12-9:28am. The first part shows six chicks and one of them is clearly dying. Chick number seven is then already missing. After that two dead chicks are removed by the mother. (8:18am and 9:28am).

Chick dying, 2 dead chicks removed by mother. 6 May 2014 8:12-9:28am

It's sad to watch and I don't know what is causing all these sudden deaths while the chicks appeared to be developing well. Lack of food?

As I write this, one of the remaining chicks is quite far behind the others and looks weak, so I fear he won't see the end of the day.

Feathers!

The oldest chicks are now 7.5 days old and feathers are starting to grow on their wings.

Feathers starting to grow, 5 May 2014 6:55pm

Unfortunately, I fear another chick has died. Since this afternoon I count no more than seven chicks...

Another chick died, 8 chicks left

Sadly, another chick has died. Why this happened is not clear to me because all chicks looked healthy and active not long before. And although some chicks are older and more developed than others, none of them seemed really far behind.

Yesterday evening when I counted only 8 chicks for more than an hour, I became worried and checked video footage from the previous hour and searched for the last moments that I could still see 9 chicks. Here is that footage (I have cut out about 2 minutes in the middle). You can see one chick in upper right corner that is much weaker than the rest. It doesn't raise his head for food anymore and after this video I never saw it alive again.

Chick is dying, 4 May 2014 5:51pm

The next morning (today) I saw the mother find the dead chick and removing it from the nest.

Mother removes dead chick from the nest, 5 may 2014 6:56am

On a positive note, one chick less improves the chances of survival for the remaining 8 chicks.

Chick pushed out of nest, finds his way back

The video below is quite funny. The parents bring in a huge bug, which they are tearing apart to feed it to the chicks. One chick emerges behind the mother between her tail and wing and almost starts crawling over her back. Then it is accidentally pushed out of the nest by the mother, but it manages to crawl back into the nest.

Accidentally pushed out of the nest, 4 May 2014 8:04am

The chick is still blind at this age, so I think he is guided back into the nest by the warmth of the mother and the nest.

Reacting to noise

The mother has just left the nest and when she flies out of the birdbox she causes some noise. This immediately triggers all the chicks to open their mouths again.

Chicks reacting to noise, 3 May 2014 6:32pm

The chicks have grown a lot since the last video and on the oldest ones you can see some black appearing on the wings and on their back: the very beginning of feathers! Also the noise the chicks make is getting louder.

One chick has disappeared, probably died

Last night there were still ten chicks but this morning I counted only nine. I think the youngest chick has died. Yesterday I was already worried about it because it was so much smaller than the others and had difficulty competing for food, athough at the time it seemed healthy and full of energy.

The two remaining eggs still have not hatched and I don't think they ever will. That leaves nine healthy chicks and that isn't bad at all, considering that the average clutch for blue tits is nine.

Reacting to mother's call

This is so nice! The chicks keep on sleeping even when their mother enters the birdbox, but when she makes one short call all mouths go open, almost like an explosion!

Wake up! 1 May 2014 5:59pm

Danger! Woodpecker has discovered the nest!

A Great Spotted Woodpecker has just discovered the nest! He peeked into the box and tested the toughness of the material around the opening.

In the video below you can see the bird on the nest making a threatening pose towards the woodpecker. You can also hear the woodpecker testing the wood to see if he can enlarge the opening and get into the box.

Threatening pose towards woodpecker, 1 May 2014 2:15pm

If the woodpecker gets into the box he will eat all the babies and there is nothing the parents can do about it. Fortunately, the opening of the box is reinforced with a metal plate so simply enlarging the opening is not possible. He would have to cut out a new opening from scratch. This is possible but hard work because the box is made from good quality wood.

Now that the woodpecker knows the location of the nest, I expect he will come back and make more attempts to get to the nest. He probably has babies of it's own to feed....

Big size difference between chicks

With the oldest chicks almost 3 days older than the youngest, the differences in development are beginning to show. Look at the feeding session below. It remains to be seen if the youngest chick will be able to compete for food with the oldest. See that little chick in the upper left corner begging for food? It was born less than a day ago.

Feeding 0-3 days old chicks, 1 May 2014 11:12am

Still two more eggs to hatch...

Swallowing a caterpillar

The chicks are growing bigger and the biggest ones can now swallow quite big caterpillars. See video below. After swallowing the caterpillar, the chick immediately excretes a fecal sac that is picked up by the father to be dumped away from the nest.

feeding, 1 May 2014 9:03am

At the time of writing there are 10 healthy chicks and still two more egg to go!

10 chicks, 2 eggs to go...

At this moment there are 10 chicks and still 2 eggs. The youngest chick is just a few hours old while the oldest one is 56 hours, so there is quite a difference in size. Fortunately there seems to be plenty of food so it looks like the smallest ones also get enough to eat.

The short clip below shows chicks begging for food. I had to watch it frame by frame to make sure there really are ten!

10 chicks, 30 April 2014 4:56pm

Close-up view of the chicks

When looking at these chicks, it is easy to see that birds are the direct descendants of the dinosaurs!

1-2 days old chicks, 30 April 2014 9:23am

How to deal with big chunks of food?

Often the parents bring in quite large bugs and the babies are not yet able to swallow them. In the video below you see the father feeding a big bug to one of the chicks (0:23) and then he observes if the food goes down well. When the baby has almost completely swallowed it, the father decides to pull it out of his throat again! (0:42) Then he tries to feed it to some other chicks. At 1:14 another chick tries to swallow it but then the mother pulls it out of his throat (1:23). She gives the food back to the male and he leaves the birdbox with it.

This happens very often and I still haven't figured out what the bird does outside the box with chunks of food that are too big. Often I see them coming back a short time later with what appears to be the same bug! However, usually they end up eating the bug themselves.

Trying to eat large bug, 30 April 2014 7:11pm

At 8:00am this morning, there are 9 chicks in the nest and 3 more eggs to go. It's been about 48 hours now since the first chick hatched.

Chicks growing stronger by the hour

It's only hours ago that the chicks were sleeping most of the time and when a parent brought in food only a few of them reacted. But now they are fanatically competing for the food!

Feeding, 29 April 2014 6:22pm

Still, four eggs have not yet hatched. The mother spends a lot of time on the nest incubating the remaining four eggs and keeping the chicks warm.

Feeding the chicks

Father brings in a green caterpillar. First, the parents try to break it into smaller chunks or just kill it off and eventually it's fed whole to one of the babies. The baby immediately excretes a fecal sac that's picked up and eaten by the mother.

Feeding, 29 April 2014 11:04am

Here is another short clip that clearly shows the procedure: mother stuffs the baby with a caterpillar and the baby immediately produces a fecal sac that the mother picks up and swallows (male birds will usually not do this but dump the fecal sac somewhere away from the box). This way the nest stays clean and predators are not attracted to the smell.

Feeding, 29 April 2014 2:30pm

Btw: at the time that I write this, chick #8 has just hatched. Four more eggs to go!

7 chicks have hatched

Per 7:38am there are 7 chicks and still 5 eggs to go. In the video below, see how the chicks react to the call of the mother!

Chick #3 and #4 have hatched

Chick#3 hatched at 1:19pm and chick #4 at 2:10pm.

In the video below you can see the parents feeding three chicks while the egg on the bottom right is starting to develop a crack: chick #4 is hatching! When the mother notices it, she starts removing the egg shells and eats them.

Feeding, chick #4 hatching. 28 April 2014 2:10pm

Parent trying to revive a weak chick?

In the video below I've captured some interesting behaviour. Of the two chicks, one of them is accepting food and looks OK but the other one doesn't eat and looks weak. In the video it looks as if one of the parents (in this case the father) tries to revive him and slimulate him to eat.

Father reviving weak chick? 28 April 2014 12:20pm

Fortunately at the time I'm writing this the chicks are eating and everything seems to be OK.

First two chicks have hatched!

This morning somewhere between 8:30am and 9:30am the first chick hatched!

Proud parents feeding their first newborn baby, 28 April 2014 9:37am

The video below shows the two parents trying to feed the chick shortly after it hatched. They are trying to tear the food apart into smaller chunks so that it is easier for the chick to swallow. However, the chick was not able to take the food at that moment.

Feeding the first chick shortly after it hatched, 28 April 2014 9:37am

The second chick hatched at 9:54am and I actually captured that event on video! The beginning of the video shows the first cracks appearing in the egg and then the chick hatches with some help from his mother. After that, the mother eats the eggshells for the nutrients.

Second chick hatching, 28 April 2014, 9:54am

Interesting feeding behaviour

I regularly see some interesting feeding behaviour when the male is feeding the female on the nest. He gives her food, but when she doesn’t immediately swallow it he takes it back and gives it again. It looks like he is helping her to tear the food apart into smaller chunks, such that it is easier to swallow. However, sometimes he leaves the nestbox with the food, only to come back with it a few moments later.

Interesting feeding behaviour, 22 April 2014 9:42am

Perhaps it's part of the whole bonding thing, similar to raptors passing prey to each other? Who knows....

Hungry!

The female is hungry and is calling for the male to bring her some food, but he is not coming. Then she leaves the nest to get some food by herself. A few minutes later when she is back on the nest, the male brings her a juicy green caterpillar.

Getting food, 20 April 2014 7:48am

Female calling for food and the male delivers it!

This is so nice! The female is on the nest and when she hears the male outside the box, she calls him. If you listen carefully, you can hear the male replying and shortly after that he brings her a snack!

18 April 2014 11:53

Male feeding the female

While the female is incubating the eggs, the male brings her some food every now and then.

Feeding, 17 April 2014 16:22

However, it is not enough so the female still has to leave the nest regularly to find some food herself.

12 eggs now, clutch probably complete

As I expected, this morning there was one more egg: a total of twelve now!

The bird is spending a lot of time on the eggs so I think the clutch is complete now and incubating has started. We should expect the eggs to hatch in about 14 days from now.

New nest for 2014!

I've just returned to the UK after 6 weeks of trekking in the Himalaya's (awesome!). This morning I switched on the nest camera and guess what? There is a blue tit nest with 11 eggs!

I think this is quite early in the year and the clutch size of 11 eggs is big (according to BTO Birdfacts 9.06 ± 2.14 is the normal range). And it appears the bird hasn't started incubating yet so I wouldn't be surprised if there is one more egg by tomorrow morning!

It's good for me that the incubation hasn't started yet because from the start of incubation I can estimate when the eggs will hatch and I'm more likely to catch that event live. Incubation time according to BTO: 13.88 ± 1.31 days.