As of this morning there are 4 chicks in the nest. As mum is always sitting on the nest when the chicks hatch unfortunately you never get to see them actually breaking out of the egg. It is also difficult to judge exactly when another chick has hatched.
However on the morning of 4th May I caught this on camera:
Mum can clearly be seen taking a broken egg shell from the nest and eating it. This was chick 2 hatching. The parent will often eat the broken egg shell. Firstly because she does not want predators to be made aware of the location of the nest and secondly it is full of calcium so it's actually good for mum. You will sometimes see part of a broken egg shell on the floor however it will usually be nowhere near the actual nest site. Please be aware that it is illegal to take/retain any birds egg in this country.
I finally got a glimpse of chick 2:
Then on 5th May chick 3 arrived early in the morning:
Mum has been very good at feeding the chicks and dad will bring food to her in the nestbox. Mum will also go out and collect food and she will do this more frequently as the chicks get older and eat more. Dad will never feed the chicks himself. Dad will come to the nestbox entrance and call but will only come in and pass the food if mum is there.
The chicks currently have their eyes shut. They respond to noise and movement only. Mum will talk to the chicks when she has food for them and they respond by lifting their heads and having their beaks wide open. When chicks are in the nest and for a short time after they fledge they will have a yellow extended part to each side of their beaks. This is known as the gape. The reason for this is that birds such as Blue Tit's would normally nest in holes in trees. It's very dark in such a nest so the chicks have wider then usual beaks in bright yellow so that the parents can see where to put the food.
Below is a great view of the large beaks:
Mum will also remove poo from the nest. Blue Tit chick poo comes wrapped up in a little sack so it can be easily disposed of. When they are very young mum ofter eats the poo but as they get older she will remove it from the nest. It will be taken well away from the nest site (away from my garden) again to avoid predators being made aware of the nest site.
Watch carefully and you will see the chick move to show it's bum, mum take the poo and eat it:
At 6.15pm on 5th May mum left the nest and I could see that there were 4 chicks. You can tell which is the latest chick as he/she has a piece of egg shell attached to its head:
Mum comes back shortly after. She notices the poor chick with the egg shell, removes it from it's head and eats it.
As Blue Tit chicks hatch 13-15 days after incubation starts there is still the possibility of further chicks hatching today. However I suspect that 4 chicks will be the total. Mum will eventually remove any unhatched eggs from the nest. As the chicks get bigger they will need as much room as possible. The chicks are fed on mainly caterpillars. Blue Tit's will time their egg laying/hatching to coincide with the availability of that food. They will also bring in other food such as spiders. The chicks get all of the water that they need from their food as they have no access to water at all until they leave the nest.
They will grow very quickly and fledging will be around 30th May. They spend 19-21 days in the nest and will leave looking exactly like the adults.
However Mum and Dad will end up looking a mess. It takes a lot of effort to bring up the chicks and going in/out of the nestbox does not help their feathers. Mum in particular will look particularly tatty by the time that the chicks fledge. The parents will continue to feed the chicks out of the nest for a further 4-5 days and then the chicks are on their own. Mum and Dad will then get a chance to moult to replace those damaged feathers.
No comments:
Post a Comment