chick-chick-chicadees!!!!!

[tinychicky]

so about a month ago, a pair of black-capped chickadees started nesting in a birdhouse i'd put up. every day i waited till the parents left, then went to look at their progress. they used everything from moss, to the rabbit hair from my (shedding-so-much-you-could-build-another-rabbit-outa-all-the-hair) rabbit that i'd put out as nest liner for all the birds! then, a few days later, 2 eggs were laid- white with reddish-brown speckles. a few days later, there were six eggs! i looked in almost every day when the parent birds left (one while she was actually brooding them!!!-oops! i left right away...) and today, about twelve days later, they hatched!!!!

i peeked in, not expecting to finds anything unusual, and i was greeted by 5 wide open mouths, begging for food! they had only a bit of fuzz covering them, but they looked pretty dry. they probably couldn't see yet out of those adorable (

) bulging eyes, but i'm not sure.... anyway, momma bird started yelling at me, so i had to leave. i'll see if i can get pictures up soon!

 

[ginbart]

I hope you get some pics that would be great.

 

[tinychicky]

i took them and i'll try to get them up later today!

 

[ibpboo]

How exciting is that!! Good job making a birdhouse for them.

Pictures will be great!

 

[suebee]

So glad you posted this topic.
Two weeks ago a chicadee couple were feeding their 4 babies like crazy. They used one of our blue bird houses mounted on a pole at the edge of our woods. A few days later I saw a blue bird couple perched at the same house chirping like crazy. I figured the chicadee babies flew out and the house was free. I opened the box to clean it out and there were 4 beautiful fully feathered babies in the nest....dead.

They looked like they were sleeping. Heads pointing up. Like I said fully feathered. I even touched them all, as they seemed to be looking up with their eyes closed. There was no blood, no mutilation, nothing. The only thing I saw was a wasp trying to get in, but no wasp nest. We are totally organic...no pesticides, nothing. I can't imagine why they died. It did get down to 37 degrees that night, but wouldn't the female brood them? Just don't know. So sad.

 

[tinychicky]

there are any number of ways they could have died. it's possible that the female couldn't get to her nest before dusk and couldn't see after it got dark. the food they brought to the babies could have been from another, not-so-eco-friendly yard. also, there is a high mortality rate for any bird who's young are hatched helpless. chickens can run around as soon as they've dried, but most songbirds like chickadees are hatched out unable to care for themselves at all. the tiniest change in enviroment can do them in.


update: one of the five chicadee babies that hatched died the other day, but the mother took it out, and the other four babies look strong and healthy- they are already 3 times the size of the eggs they hatched out of!!

 

[ginbart]

Pic's please.

LOL

 

[sourland]

I also had a chickadee nest in a bluebird house this year. She lined her nest with shed hair from my golden retriever. I always thought they nested North of here. (New Jersey) She and her mate successfully fledged 5 babies.

 

[tinychicky]

sry, i'll get right on it, ginbart lol

 

[tinychicky]

the babies...

oops! mama doesn't look too happy! i'd better leave...

here are the babies again!

about a week later.....

sorry about the wait!