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Blue Tit Nest Box Camera Live Stream

Winston

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Winston

Winston

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- Livestream http://connectcast.tv/Winston - I run it throughout the day (GMT) when I can - birds are active until about 8pm -

- The surviving chick fledged 19 days after hatching at 01:13:53 -

First of all, for non-Europeans, this is a blue tit - smaller than a sparrow and a thoroughly charming little bird

16024455725_da8ba4822f_z.jpg

Blue Tit by Winston, on Flickr

Back in January I decided to try my luck with a nest box for this year's breeding season as I have grown rather fond of birdies in recent times through photographing them

I knocked one up out of some scrap pine with blue tits in mind and fitted a small wired camera inside

I affixed it to a tree in my back garden, expecting maybe a 30~ percent chance of anything taking up residence, but sure enough within 24 hours a female blue tit was roosting inside out of the wind, and she spent every night in there since

Here's the box featuring a collared dove on the roof (which, incidentally, along with its mate, nested in the same tree about a foot to the left of the box and successfully raised a chick which fledged last month)

OS5BpDD.png

January till April - just spending nights

dMuP4TA.jpg

April till May - nest building, then being fed by the male while laying eggs in early May

http://zippy.gfycat.com/RightTangibleBangeltiger.webm

May - Laying an egg a day for a total of nine

http://zippy.gfycat.com/WeeklyUnnaturalBalloonfish.webm

After a couple of weeks of incubation, yesterday evening, the 18th of May, the first egg hatched (mother eats the shell)

http://zippy.gfycat.com/IllfatedDizzyEider.webm

That was closely followed by two more, after which the male came in and saw the chicks for the first time and was left alone and slightly bewildered looking while the female went to find a little insect larva or something for them

http://a.pomf.se/wavfau.mp4

I am curious to see how many of the nine survive to fledging point

Male feeding the female at my feeders

17827168492_f9fed013bf_z.jpg

Bluetit Pair Feeding by Winston, on Flickr

The female (abdominal feathers plucked out to expose a bare patch of skin for incubating the eggs)

17829984585_0f78c6c072_z.jpg

Bluetit by Winston, on Flickr

Edited by Winston
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DanielCoffey

DanielCoffey

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Winston - I get a Trojan/Malware warning from my ASUS AC87U router when attempting to visit the 4th video where you described the male returning. The other three display fine. I see the web host is different for that last video. Could you verify the link please?

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Winston

Winston

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Winston - I get a Trojan/Malware warning from my ASUS AC87U router when attempting to visit the 4th video where you described the male returning. The other three display fine. I see the web host is different for that last video. Could you verify the link please?

You can ignore the warning, it's a common site for hosting larger video files

The birds are settling in to sleep now as the sun has set here in England, but I will continue the stream in the morning

Edited by Winston
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Winston

Winston

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Wow, nice pictures! Did you take them with a Nikon D7000 + Tammy 70-300 VC? ;)

I didn't think the lens brand and model were in the EXIF data

Edited by Winston
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T-Bouw

T-Bouw

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Wow! That's awesome!

Good job documenting the whole thing too!

I'm a little jealous. We actually have a Nest box for a Blue Tit in our garden as well, facing east and everything, but the little blue guys just don't seem to want to move in.

2 checked it out (that we've seen) but, other than that, no luck.

We have a pretty bird-friendly garden already (I think). Lots of plants, little to no visiting cats, sometimes some bird-food, nearby trees.

Do you haven any tips for luring them?

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DanielCoffey

DanielCoffey

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I would suspect that if there are already good nesting sites, they will be happy with the natural ones... until the population increases (along with the food sources of course) and they need the extra space.

By watching the cam, I have observed some things that school websites suggest pupils watch, no matter how gross. For example, why do the parents eat the fecal sacs? What do they do with the ones they don't eat? What else will they take away from the nest? (Egg number nine I am looking at you...)

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Winston

Winston

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Wow! That's awesome!

Good job documenting the whole thing too!

I'm a little jealous. We actually have a Nest box for a Blue Tit in our garden as well, facing east and everything, but the little blue guys just don't seem to want to move in.

2 checked it out (that we've seen) but, other than that, no luck.

We have a pretty bird-friendly garden already (I think). Lots of plants, little to no visiting cats, sometimes some bird-food, nearby trees.

Do you haven any tips for luring them?

I provide food throughout the year. Apart from that though, as long as the box is reasonably appropriate in its dimensions, I think there's a lot of luck involved.

I consider myself very lucky to have a bird not just roost in the box literally the day after I put it up, but also raise a brood in it, especially since this was the first time I've tried a nest box.

I think the size of the hole is of quite significant importance, as if it's too big they consider it unsafe as larger birds would be able to gain access and a cat could even get its paw in there.

25mm is recommended for blue tits, however I sanded mine out to 28mm which is recommended for great tits, being slightly larger birds, as I wanted to increase my chances.

My box's floor is 6x6 inches, which looks quite excessive at this stage, but once there are about 8 fully grown chicks in there it will surely be quite cramped.

The entrance is about 5 inches up from the floor, preventing cats from being able to reach down to the nest.

I don't know if the birds pay this any attention, but it's a good idea anyway:

I fitted that aluminium plate over the entrance which I got for a couple of pounds shipped from eBay. This prevents things like squirrels and crows from enlarging the entrance to gain access.

I have heard stories of people having a variety of boxes up for year after year with no luck. I think Bill Oddie said he has yet to have a robin nest in one of the many robin boxes he has in his garden, despite his garden being, as you can imagine, quite a paradise for birds as far as food and safety is concerned.

So:

- make sure the entrance is 25mm to 28mm in diameter and at least 5 inches up

- make sure the floor is roomy enough for 8+ fully grown birds (they will be the same size as their parents a good while before leaving the nest)

- place the box at a decent height above the ground (mine is about 3 meters up)

- provide food whenever you can - I strongly recommend sunflower hearts, a variety of birds will go for them

But most importantly I think, just persist.

Make sure you have it up in good time each year. I put mine up in January, but apparently they will start using them as early as Autumn.

Best of luck.

By watching the cam, I have observed some things that school websites suggest pupils watch, no matter how gross. For example, why do the parents eat the fecal sacs? What do they do with the ones they don't eat? What else will they take away from the nest? (Egg number nine I am looking at you...)

I always thought they took all of the fecal sacs out of the nest. I was very surprised to see them actually swallowing them in this case.

I can guarantee that won't happen once the chicks are fully grown however, that would be far too much turd to ingest.

They are taken out of the nest and dropped, where within a fairly short space of time, the membrane casing dissolves.

I am not sure if the final egg will be taken out or not.

I think they will give it a bit more time anyway, just in case. Remember, that egg could have been laid up to 9 days later than the first one since she laid one per day.

Edited by Winston
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LordFerret

LordFerret

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I have 2 families nesting currently in the birdhouses I've put up. One is a pair of House Sparrows, the other is a pair of House Wrens. There's a lot of Black-capped Chickadees in the area too... last year I had a family of them in the house the Sparrows are in - stiff housing competition around here. I put plenty of food out daily, year round; seed, bread, suet; And water. Nesting materials too... pieces of straw, small fabric scraps, snips of yarn, even a little lint from the clothes dryer, and they use it. I don't have anything as colorful however as your Blue Tits, just single solid-colored species like Goldfinches, Cardinals, and Blue Jays.

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Winston

Winston

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I have 2 families nesting currently in the birdhouses I've put up. One is a pair of House Sparrows, the other is a pair of House Wrens. There's a lot of Black-capped Chickadees in the area too... last year I had a family of them in the house the Sparrows are in - stiff housing competition around here. I put plenty of food out daily, year round; seed, bread, suet; And water. Nesting materials too... pieces of straw, small fabric scraps, snips of yarn, even a little lint from the clothes dryer, and they use it. I don't have anything as colorful however as your Blue Tits, just single solid-colored species like Goldfinches, Cardinals, and Blue Jays.

This is what our Goldfinches look like

17318290064_e37081baf9_c.jpg

Goldfinch by Winston, on Flickr

Also, I can confirm the final egg hatched, however there are definitely only eight chicks. I believe one of them died at some point and was discarded but I have yet to track down the footage.

I was mistaken, all nine are present

WejWr1G.png

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Winston

Winston

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It is so hard to count the 'lil wrigglers. I agree the 9th egg hatched but my count varies between eight and "wait... was that nine?"

Gotta wait until all their mouths are open like in the above image

It's unfortunate that I didn't splash out on a higher resolution camera, possibly with LEDs

Perhaps next year

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Winston

Winston

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I can see what my mind is telling me is the last hatched one because it seems smaller than the rest... but I keep coming up 9 in my count. Wishful thinking maybe?

Look back at my post with the Goldfinch, I updated it - there are nine

Edited by Winston
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