Welcome to the popular Baby Chickadees photojournal, where you'll follow the amazing day-by-day growth and development of seven baby chickadees from the parents' nest building to the day the nestlings fledged into the wide world.
These Carolina Chickadees nested in one of my bluebird boxes in the spring of 2004.
I have other galleries for a wide variety of birds -- please visit them too!
These Carolina Chickadees nested in one of my bluebird boxes in the spring of 2004.
I have other galleries for a wide variety of birds -- please visit them too!
May 22, Day 18
Chickadees have only one brood a year, but a few other cavity nesters -- including bluebirds -- have several, so with the fledglings gone, we cleaned out the used nesting material to ready the nest box for possible new tenants.
Here you can see the structure of the nest. Most of the soft plant fibers that lined the nest cup have been trampled down by the chicks and carried out of the nestbox stuck to the parents' feet, but the thick mossy base is mostly intact. It is amazing that a pair of such small birds carried all of this material in their bills, a tiny mouthful at a time, to create this soft, cushiony home to raise their babies.
Chickadees have only one brood a year, but a few other cavity nesters -- including bluebirds -- have several, so with the fledglings gone, we cleaned out the used nesting material to ready the nest box for possible new tenants.
Here you can see the structure of the nest. Most of the soft plant fibers that lined the nest cup have been trampled down by the chicks and carried out of the nestbox stuck to the parents' feet, but the thick mossy base is mostly intact. It is amazing that a pair of such small birds carried all of this material in their bills, a tiny mouthful at a time, to create this soft, cushiony home to raise their babies.
May 22, Day 18
Chickadees have only one brood a year, but a few other cavity nesters -- including bluebirds -- have several, so with the fledglings gone, we cleaned out the used nesting material to ready the nest box for possible new tenants.
Here you can see the structure of the nest. Most of the soft plant fibers that lined the nest cup have been trampled down by the chicks and carried out of the nestbox stuck to the parents' feet, but the thick mossy base is mostly intact. It is amazing that a pair of such small birds carried all of this material in their bills, a tiny mouthful at a time, to create this soft, cushiony home to raise their babies.
Chickadees have only one brood a year, but a few other cavity nesters -- including bluebirds -- have several, so with the fledglings gone, we cleaned out the used nesting material to ready the nest box for possible new tenants.
Here you can see the structure of the nest. Most of the soft plant fibers that lined the nest cup have been trampled down by the chicks and carried out of the nestbox stuck to the parents' feet, but the thick mossy base is mostly intact. It is amazing that a pair of such small birds carried all of this material in their bills, a tiny mouthful at a time, to create this soft, cushiony home to raise their babies.
in this box: