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.