Thanks for this video, it's two years old but I came here to research fledging. We were lucky to have 4 chicks survive up until yesterday. The box is now empty and I'm not sure what happened, where are the chicks, will they return, etc. There are some very good pointers in this video about predators, and looking for clues on/ around the nest for signs of predation. I'll take another look. Fingers crossed mine all fledged safely
Hello, thanks for your comment. That's great you had 4 chicks leave the nest. Yes, hopefully they will continue to all survive. Glad you liked the video- I had 11 chicks fledge last year. Here is a video about it, if you would like to see it as well: ruclips.net/video/CoTdubepJrk/видео.htmlsi=OYG4eIbJtR1sABI5 Unfortunately this year all our blue tit chicks died in the nest, which was possibly to do with a lot of wet weather and caterpillars being washed from the trees, which made it hard for the parents to find food.
Well done on this series Will. An interesting insight into the struggle our garden birds face to raise their young. I've heard a couple of people say that they think brood (or at least fledging) numbers are lower than normal (e.g. Starlings & House Sparrows). Maybe the issue is with the unusually dry April and start of May we had. Did the dry period aversely affect the availability of grubs / small caterpillars? Will birds attempt a new brood? All questions I don't know the answers to for sure. Keep up the good work Will. Have a good week buddy. 👍🙂👍
Thanks very much Graham! Glad you enjoyed the series. Good questions - it may well be the case that the dryer periods affected the availability of caterpillars. I heard that chicks can demand around 100 caterpillars a day, so of they were less available I'm sure that would have a massive impact on chick survival. I think Springwatch is starting tomorrow so there may be some further insights on there... Hope you have a good week too 😃👍
I was hoping to find out what happens once the fledgling leaves the nest box. Does it try to return to its shelter in those first few vulnerable days? It fledged yesterday in the sunshine but there’s been downpours of rain since. I can’t see it anywhere, though there’s still unfledged chicks in the nest being fed by both parents.
Thanks for your comment. I think the chicks often try to find cover somewhere and then the parents will come and feed them. This is certainly what we found with our chicks that fledged. Last year we had 11 chicks fledge, but I only saw 1 or 2 of them after they left the nest, which indicates they are good at hiding and waiting for the parents to feed them 👍
Hello, thanks for commenting. The parents often try to get the dead chicks out of the nest, but sometimes that can be difficult so we saw that the parents would try to move them into one corner of the nest box away from the remaining chicks - most likely to prevent disease from spreading.
Such a shame about the other chicks, like you say on the livestream all seemed good. But at least one made it to fledge. Very well documented, nice video.👍
Thanks Jay - really appreciate it 😃 Yes it was a shame but at one point I was wondering if any would make it, so pleased that at least one made it and fledged!
Hi. Thanks for the video. We put a bird box up a couple of years ago. No interest until last year when a pair of blue tits took a liking to it, in and out during late April and May then activity stopped. Waited till September to have a look and there were four eggs there. Cleaned the box later in the year and put it back up, again lots of activity April and May, going in with nesting material and at the end of May early June with what appeared to be food. No activity for almost two weeks now, never heard any chicks chirping. I’m hoping they have hatched and fledged but don’t want to look inside the box just yet in case they are still there. Do you know what the latest is for them to hatch? Again thanks for the video, keep up the good work Best regards Chris (UK)
Thanks Chris, glad you liked the video and really interesting to hear about the birds in your garden. I've heard that late May is when some might start building nests, and from what I've read it could be that in years when the emergence of caterpillars is delayed, it's an advantage to nest out of sync with the rest of the crowd. Perhaps that might help to explain why you had eggs in September! All the best 😃👍
Thanks for your comment. No, I didn't remove any dead chicks from the nest. This was mainly because I didn't want to disturb the remaining ones. If the chicks are looking nearly fully grown then they should hopefully fledge fairly soon and may be more eager to leave the nest if there are dead chicks in there. Hope your remaining 4 fledge successfully.
Thanks for this video, it's two years old but I came here to research fledging. We were lucky to have 4 chicks survive up until yesterday. The box is now empty and I'm not sure what happened, where are the chicks, will they return, etc. There are some very good pointers in this video about predators, and looking for clues on/ around the nest for signs of predation. I'll take another look. Fingers crossed mine all fledged safely
Hello, thanks for your comment. That's great you had 4 chicks leave the nest. Yes, hopefully they will continue to all survive. Glad you liked the video- I had 11 chicks fledge last year. Here is a video about it, if you would like to see it as well: ruclips.net/video/CoTdubepJrk/видео.htmlsi=OYG4eIbJtR1sABI5
Unfortunately this year all our blue tit chicks died in the nest, which was possibly to do with a lot of wet weather and caterpillars being washed from the trees, which made it hard for the parents to find food.
Well done on this series Will. An interesting insight into the struggle our garden birds face to raise their young. I've heard a couple of people say that they think brood (or at least fledging) numbers are lower than normal (e.g. Starlings & House Sparrows). Maybe the issue is with the unusually dry April and start of May we had. Did the dry period aversely affect the availability of grubs / small caterpillars? Will birds attempt a new brood? All questions I don't know the answers to for sure. Keep up the good work Will. Have a good week buddy. 👍🙂👍
Thanks very much Graham! Glad you enjoyed the series. Good questions - it may well be the case that the dryer periods affected the availability of caterpillars. I heard that chicks can demand around 100 caterpillars a day, so of they were less available I'm sure that would have a massive impact on chick survival. I think Springwatch is starting tomorrow so there may be some further insights on there... Hope you have a good week too 😃👍
I was hoping to find out what happens once the fledgling leaves the nest box.
Does it try to return to its shelter in those first few vulnerable days?
It fledged yesterday in the sunshine but there’s been downpours of rain since.
I can’t see it anywhere, though there’s still unfledged chicks in the nest being fed by both parents.
Thanks for your comment. I think the chicks often try to find cover somewhere and then the parents will come and feed them. This is certainly what we found with our chicks that fledged. Last year we had 11 chicks fledge, but I only saw 1 or 2 of them after they left the nest, which indicates they are good at hiding and waiting for the parents to feed them 👍
Where do the ones that’s didn’t survive go? 😢
Hello, thanks for commenting. The parents often try to get the dead chicks out of the nest, but sometimes that can be difficult so we saw that the parents would try to move them into one corner of the nest box away from the remaining chicks - most likely to prevent disease from spreading.
@@WildlifeBox we had 7 chicks but only 1 is left but one only passed few days ago so its still there unfortunately and the other has disappeared
Such a shame about the other chicks, like you say on the livestream all seemed good. But at least one made it to fledge. Very well documented, nice video.👍
Thanks Jay - really appreciate it 😃 Yes it was a shame but at one point I was wondering if any would make it, so pleased that at least one made it and fledged!
Hi. Thanks for the video. We put a bird box up a couple of years ago. No interest until last year when a pair of blue tits took a liking to it, in and out during late April and May then activity stopped. Waited till September to have a look and there were four eggs there.
Cleaned the box later in the year and put it back up, again lots of activity April and May, going in with nesting material and at the end of May early June with what appeared to be food.
No activity for almost two weeks now, never heard any chicks chirping.
I’m hoping they have hatched and fledged but don’t want to look inside the box just yet in case they are still there.
Do you know what the latest is for them to hatch?
Again thanks for the video, keep up the good work
Best regards
Chris (UK)
Thanks Chris, glad you liked the video and really interesting to hear about the birds in your garden. I've heard that late May is when some might start building nests, and from what I've read it could be that in years when the emergence of caterpillars is delayed, it's an advantage to nest out of sync with the rest of the crowd. Perhaps that might help to explain why you had eggs in September! All the best 😃👍
Did you remove any dead chicks from the nest. There are 4 chicks dead in our nest box all with feathers so not far from fledging, we have 4 left.
Thanks for your comment. No, I didn't remove any dead chicks from the nest. This was mainly because I didn't want to disturb the remaining ones. If the chicks are looking nearly fully grown then they should hopefully fledge fairly soon and may be more eager to leave the nest if there are dead chicks in there. Hope your remaining 4 fledge successfully.